10 November 2023 , 08:09
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Robert De Niro's former assistant has won her lawsuit against the actor's production company after accusing the Taxi Driver star for causing "severe emotional distress and reputational harm".
Graham Chase Robinson, 41, filed a lawsuit over gender discrimination in 2019. Within the suit, she claimed that during her employment with the Oscar-winning actor, she was called abusive names and shouted at. He vehemently denied being abusive.
The former personal assistant has now been awarded almost £1million ($1.2million) in damages payments after De Niro's Canal Productions was found liable on Thursday evening at Manhattan Federal Court.
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A jury has ordered Robert De Niro's company to pay more than $1.2 million to his former personal assistant (AP)While De Niro himself was not found personally liable, jurors said his company, Canal Productions, should pay his former personal assistant $632,142 in damages for each of the claims. But what were some of the shocking bombshells that emerged from the suit in relation to the actor?
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Weird requests
In the suit, Graham claimed to have been subject to a slew of unusual requests made by the famous actor. One was that De Niro would call her while he was on the toilet and ask that she scratch his back.
In another outrageous request, Graham claimed that De Niro ordered "a particular martini" from Nobu to be delivered to his home in an Uber — but the actor claims this only happened once. The request was reportedly insisted upon at 11pm.
"Hostile and abusive"
In court documents seen by The Mirror, De Niro allegedly "communicated in a hostile, abusive, and intimidating manner with Ms. Robinson." The documents also state that the actor allegedly "attacked her in gender terms, calling her a “b**ch” and a “brat”.
De Niro responded: "I was never abusive, ever," though he admitted he may have used the word "b**ch" during conversations.
Viagra prescription and 'vulgar comments'
Robert De Niro would also joke about his Viagra prescription, the plaintiff's complaint read. Graham also claimed that the star would make "vulgar, inappropriate, and gendered comments" towards her.
"He would smirked to Ms. Robinson about his young paramour, who was around Ms. Robinson’s age," it was claimed.
Graham claimed that the actor caused "severe emotional distress and reputational harm" (AP)"De Niro reportedly directed Ms. Robinson to imagine him on the toilet," and Andrew Macurdy, one of Robinson's lawyers, asked whether it was true he sometimes urinated as he spoke to his former employee on the phone. Robert answered: "That's nonsense. You got us all here for this?"
Robert allegedly told Ms. Robinson that doing manual labour would make a man out of you' and suggested that she could get pregnant using sperm from her (married) male co-worker."
De Niro shouting in court
Another bombshell from the case was when De Niro shouted as he testified in a New York courtroom. Directing the comments toward his former executive assistant and vice president Graham, the actor fumed "shame on you!" in the courthouse last week.