Robert De Niro lost his temper again in court today after he was asked a series of questions about whether he had urinated while on the phone with his ex-assistant and called her a “bitch to his face”.
The actor became angry when asked if he made his former assistant Graham Chase Robinson scratch his back, which he admitted he did twice. When she asked if he could use a back scratch, he declined because he liked the way she did it, the court heard.
De Niro said: “I have never shown disrespect, indecency or insanity as you are implying.” Shame on you, Chase Robinson! Thank God! I’m sorry.’
Previously, Robinson’s lawyers tried to portray De Niro as a demanding boss and played an audio recording of him calling her at 6:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning to try to access his computer.
Robinson’s attorney, Andrew Macurdy, questioned whether it was correct that De Niro called Robinson twice in 2015 when she was at her grandmother’s funeral.
He said: “If I had done it, I would have done it,” adding that he would have been “sensitive to the fact that it was a funeral.”
De Niro said it may have been a wake and that Robinson may have said she could “speak at this time.”
He said: “It’s not like it’s a funeral where you bury the body in the ground or whatever.” An exasperated De Niro called the question “nonsense” and stopped answering.
Robert De Niro got angry on Tuesday when he was asked if he made his former assistant Graham Chase Robinson scratch his back, which he admitted he did twice
Robert De Niro returns to court today to testify against his former assistant, who is suing the 80-year-old actor for $12 million over abuse allegations
Robinson is seeking $12 million for gender discrimination and sexual harassment during her decades-long employment with the actor. Robinson’s lawsuit accuses De Niro of forcing her to take on the role of his “office wife.”
Macurdy asked if De Niro called during the funeral because he needed help buying a bus ticket for his son.
He shot back, “And?”
Macurdy asked De Niro if on another occasion he had asked Robinson to bring him a martini from Nobu, a high-end restaurant in Manhattan, at 11 p.m.
He acknowledged that it “could have happened once.”
Macurdy asked about a voicemail he left for Robinson in which he “yelled” at her.
The jury was shown emails and text messages between the film star and his girlfriend Tiffany Chen, a martial arts instructor and mother of De Niro’s months-old baby
De Niro said he “raised my voice” and was “upset” because she didn’t wake him up for an important event he had to attend.
The recording was not played for the jury, but it was submitted in the lawsuit.
Macurdy said that De Niro “abused” Robinson on the call and he admitted “this time I did it.” When asked if he called Robinson a “spoiled brat” in the call, he admitted he may have.
The court heard that Robinson demanded the same compensation as De Niro’s personal trainer in 2018. He became angry at the idea that they should have been paid the same as the coach who “traveled with me for 40 years and left his family with me for long periods of time.”
He said, “She’s jealous of him.”
De Niro was then asked if he was on the phone with Robinson while he was urinating. He protested, “Maybe I was in the toilet.” I didn’t know I was talking. Light up! That’s why you brought us all here today?’
Macurdy asked whether De Niro told Robinson to use a colleague’s sperm to get pregnant.
De Niro said: “I don’t remember saying it.”
When asked if he ever called Robinson a “b****,” De Niro said he was “never offensive.”
De Niro previously bristled at the idea that his girlfriend and mother of his young child, Tiffany Chen, had pressured him to fire Robinson.
The jury was shown an email exchanged between them at 2am on March 2, 2019
Chen said, “If you keep her (Robinson), we’re both going to have problems.” Chen called Robinson “bloody rude” and a “dismissive idiot.”
She said, ‘I don’t know why you don’t see it.’ You don’t want to see it because you’re too close to her.’
De Niro responded that he agreed and Robinson’s behavior was “unacceptable.”
Chen replied, “I won’t be happy until you tell me she’s looking for a replacement.” “Keeping her with me is just a slap in the face.”
Macurdy asked if De Niro agreed that this was an “ultimatum.”
De Niro responded, “You call it an ultimatum, I don’t.” He told the jury that he believed it was a request from Chen to Robinson to stop work at her townhouse.
The actor bristled as he said, “No one tells me what to do in my office ‘Period!’
In August 2019, actor Robert De Niro sued his former assistant Graham Chase Robinson for watching “Friends” at work and stealing millions of frequent flyer miles
In other emails, Chen claimed that Robinson had a “crush” on De Niro and wrote, “The more I find out, the more this disgusts me.”
Chen also claimed that Robinson had a “fantasy relationship” with De Niro.
On April 2, 2019, Robinson emailed De Niro and suggested she stop working at his home due to tensions in the house.
Robinson said she didn’t want a repeat of the arguments between De Niro’s former personal assistant and Grace Hightower, his ex-wife.
After reading the email, Chen reacted angrily and emailed De Niro: “This shit is really killing me,” branding Robinson “so manipulative.”
She said, “That bastard needs to be put in his place.”
In another email, Chen wrote to De Niro and said: “She (Robinson) is completely outraged by the allegations she makes in this email.”
Jurors were shown emails Chen sent four days later, on April 6, 2019, in which he asked De Niro’s accountants to audit Robinson’s expenses and requested her interior designer and Robinson’s assistants report to her and De Niro directly to report.
That same day, Robinson resigned and emailed De Niro saying she had been “loyal and protective to the point of angering others” and had worked 80-90 hour weeks “above and beyond the hard work.”
At this point, Macurdy mentioned that De Niro had already tried to keep Robinson in 2018 when she wanted to quit.
Robinson’s lawyer Andrew Macurdy on how he persuaded Robinson to stay in November 2018 when she wanted to leave.
Macurdy asked if De Niro kept her with “carrot and stick”?
An angry De Niro replied: “What carrot and stick?” I don’t know what you’re talking about. This is not my style.’
Robinson, who worked for De Niro between 2008 and 2019, was paid $300,000 a year before stepping down as his vice president of production and finance
De Niro’s legal team claims Robinson misused the Amex company to treat himself to lavish vacations, hang bags, buy dinner and buy gadgets
Macurdy asked if he had threatened to give her a bad letter of recommendation.
De Niro shot back: “I won’t do that!” You say I threatened her. I will not do that. She worked for me. I treated her with respect.’
De Niro said that they “negotiated” and reached an agreement – her salary was increased from $200,000 to $300,000 a year.
He said, “I got divorced, I moved.” I said this isn’t a good time. I knew what she was doing. She chose a time to say she was leaving. It wasn’t like I said you had to do that. We talked about it.’
Macurdy asked again if the “carrot” was a raise.
De Niro said angrily: “Carrot? I needed her. It wasn’t a carrot. It wasn’t hard one minute and beautiful the next. There was a lot going on and I needed her help.”
Matters with Robinson became even more tense on June 11, 2019, a few months after her departure, when she wrote to him asking why he refused to give her a letter of recommendation for the London School of Economics.
De Niro also asked her to sign a waiver that would have prevented her from suing him and his company.
Robinson proposed a severance package that included two years of her $300,000 salary, two years of health insurance and a meeting with De Niro.
The court was shown messages from Chen to De Niro in which she told him that Robinson would not have to pay severance pay if he quit.
De Niro replied: “I know, but I will do what is right.”
De Niro rejected the notion that Chen was in control of the situation, telling the court: “She (Chen) had to have an opinion, but what I’m going to do, I’m going to do.”
Five days later, Chen brought it up again and De Niro once again dismissed the idea that his girlfriend was in charge.
He said, “I don’t care what she said.” Maybe she was upset. I have to do what I have to do. She didn’t understand certain things.’
De Niro reacted angrily when Robinson threatened to hire lawyers after she resigned from his company Canal Productions, the court heard.
In a message to his girlfriend Tiffany Chen in July 2019, De Niro said, “Can you believe Chase? ‘Who the hell does she think she is?’
The jury was shown texts between the film star and his girlfriend Tiffany Chen.
In the July 2019 message, De Niro said, “Can you believe Chase? ‘Who the hell does she think she is?’
Chen replied, “She thought she was your wife.” I saw it from the beginning. I told you.’
De Niro replied: “The bass.” The nerve. The chutzpah. The feeling of entitlement. How dare she!’
Chen said, “Tom will get her,” referring to De Niro’s lawyer, who was about to write a letter accusing her of stealing company funds.
Macurdy asked if De Niro thought Robinson was “disloyal.” He replied, “I don’t know. Whatever.”
Macurdy said, “You wanted to get her.”
An exasperated De Niro said he just wanted back the things she stole from him.
He told the court: “How much of this abuse will I endure?” This whole case is nonsense. It’s absurd.’
De Niro told the jury he just wanted to return the stolen things, adding: “Give back the airline miles!”
During another heated exchange with Macurdy, De Niro denied that he sued her to give her negative press attention.
He said, ‘That’s not why I did that.’ Let’s stop it.’
When asked if he wanted to do a lot of publicity, De Niro said that was “the last thing I wanted to do.”
De Niro denied wanting to “ruin” and “humiliate” Robinson, as Macurdy put it, calling the idea “nonsense.”
Macurdy repeatedly returned to the question of loyalty and trust to portray De Niro as an unfairly treated boss.
He asked, “Loyalty is important to you, right?”
De Niro said, “Yes.”
Macurdy said, “Infidelity makes you angry?”
De Niro said: “It worried me, let’s put it that way.”
De Niro described Robinson’s use of company airline points for her own travel as an “honor system” and repeatedly said he “trusted her to do the right thing.”
He claimed she had “taken liberties” but found it difficult to pinpoint specific incidents in which she allegedly abused that system.
He also couldn’t name any taxis his company paid for and now claims this was for personal reasons.
De Niro admitted that he knew Robinson could use the company’s Skymiles for personal travel.
He even agreed to transfer one or two million Skymiles to her personal account, but he did not agree to her taking five million, he told the jury.
Robinson said in her suit that De Niro sometimes yelled at her and called her nasty names, behavior consistent with his sexist comments about women in general
De Niro’s legal team suspected Robinson “always played the victim” and was a money-hungry former employee.
“It’s nice to work for a movie star, but it can be mundane,” said De Niro’s lawyer Richard Schoenstein.
Robinson claims that she began working for the actor and businessman’s company in 2008 – at age 25 – as an executive assistant and eventually rose to vice president of production and finance before being “forced to resign” in 2019.
The woman who spent years doing everything from decorating De Niro’s Christmas tree to transporting him to the hospital after he fell down the stairs has sued him for $12 million in damages for severe emotional distress and defamation of reputation.
De Niro claimed Robinson suddenly left her position – for which she was compensated $300,000 a year – when “suspicions” arose about her “honesty, integrity, work ethic and motivation.”
His legal team claims Robinson abused the Amex company to treat himself to lavish vacations that cost tens of thousands of dollars, charged Ubers and dog sitters to his credit card, bought designer handbags and treated himself to expensive dinners and gadgets after she left Niro’s employment.
The lawsuit also accuses the entertainment manager of “loafness.”[ing] during work hours,” “amazing hours of watching TV shows on Netflix,” and “millions of De Niro’s frequent flyer miles stolen.”
The civil trial is expected to last two weeks.