Graham Chase Robinson, who worked for Robert De Niro at Canal Productions from 2008 to 2019, testifies at the actor’s trial for gender discrimination
Robert De Niro’s former assistant Graham Chase Robinson testified as she speaks in the couple’s court battle.
Robinson is suing De Niro and his production company, Canal Productions, for allegedly violating the New York City Human Rights Act. De Niro is also suing Robinson, accusing her of inappropriate spending and excessive television viewing during work hours.
Robinson testified in federal court in New York on Thursday, describing the time she spent working for De Niro, 80, and his company, Canal Productions, from 2008 to 2019.
When asked by her attorney Andrew Macurdy, Robinson described working for De Niro as an executive assistant as an “on-call” full-time responsibility.
“After you left the office, you — the family, Bob and his family, would call the phone,” she said, referring to the work phone she kept with her all the time she worked. “And whenever it rang, whether it was 5:00 in the morning or 10:00 at night, you would pick it up. And that was Monday through Sunday. It didn’t matter if you were in New York and the family was in Doha. .. You picked it up regardless of the time, and then helped them with everything they needed.”
Robinson testified that during the last three years of her employment at Canal Productions, De Niro usually called her “five to 10 times a day” and disagreed with De Niro’s testimony earlier this week that he only called her “during civilized hours.” She also disputed his claim that he did not yell at her.
Everything you need to know about Robert De Niro’s gender discrimination trial
Graham Chase Robinson and Robert De Niro.
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“Sometimes I would send him an email and he couldn’t find the email, so he would [call] he was shouting and screaming saying, ‘I didn’t receive him’, when he did,” she told the court. “When he was frustrated, when he couldn’t find his driver. There are different reasons why he would get angry.”
“He was often frustrated,” Robinson added.
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Robert De Niro October 30, 2023
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Robinson also testified that she kept her work phone “only attached to me” while working for De Niro and his production company, which initially filed a $6 million lawsuit against her after her resignation in 2019. They argued that excessive binge-watched Netflix shows while on the job, charged personal meals and groceries to a company credit card, and inappropriately used “her employer’s fund for her personal benefit,” including De Niro’s frequent flyer miles.
She then filed a $12 million counterclaim alleging that De Niro and Canal Productions violated the New York City Human Rights Act, claiming that the actor made sexist comments to her, assigned her “stereotypical female job duties that were inconsistent with her job title,” and paid her less than male employee Dan Harvey.
Robert De Niro claims ex-assistant stole 5 million airline miles he wants back ‘for my kids’
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Graham Chase Robinson October 30, 2023
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“When I’d go to a doctor’s appointment, he’d call me. When I’d go for a run, he’d call me,” Robinson said. “When I took my mother to the emergency room and told him, he called me. When I told him I wouldn’t be available for my grandmother’s funeral, he called me twice.”
When asked by her own lawyers whether she felt any physical or romantic attraction to De Niro during her employment, Robinson repeatedly answered “no”. De Niro’s girlfriend Tiffany Chen, who knew Robinson during the last few months of her employment with Canal Productions in 2018 and 2019, testified and presented evidence earlier Thursday that she believed Robinson had an “imaginary intimacy” with De Niro.
During his testimony Monday, De Niro said Robinson’s claims were exaggerated.
“She works for me; she has to do what I ask,” De Niro said during questioning from Robinson’s legal counsel. “It’s not like I’m asking her to go out on the floor and scrape the floors and go out and mop the floor. I didn’t do any of that, nor did I [girlfriend Chen]so it’s all nonsense.”
The trial, which began on Monday, is expected to last a total of two weeks.
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