Actor Robert De Niro on trial in New York after a former assistant asked him for damages for gender discrimination . “ A sexist bully who had turned his working day into hell ,” is how Graham Chase Robinson described him. The woman points the finger at the star after he, a two-time Oscar winner, in turn accused her of stealing millions of miles of frequent flyer programs and of spending her days on Netflix instead of working.
Robinson, now 41, was employed by De Niro from 2008 to 2019 and at the time of her dismissal was vice president for production and finance, a paid position with a salary of $300,000 a year. “ He underpaid me, made sexist comments and assigned me stereotypically feminine tasks ,” she explained, who is now asking for 12 million dollars for having suffered “serious emotional and reputational damage.” De Niro's company, Canal Productions, also wants six, accusing the woman of having transferred the equivalent of $450,000 in air travel miles to her personal account and of having spent tens of thousands of dollars on food, travel and other services not related to your employment.
De Niro, against the accusation, lost his temper several times in court. " All nonsense ", his comment. According to his version, the woman's duties included keeping his diary, organizing trips and buying gifts for friends and relatives. The former assistant fought back: he made her mend his clothes, do his laundry and sometimes even scratch his back. “I've always called her at decent hours after hours,” De Niro responded to Graham's accusation that he was needed “at all hours of the day and night.” The actor's only admission: "once I called her at 4 in the morning but I had my good reasons: I had broken my back falling down the stairs."
(Unioneonline/vf)
