De Niro Shouts 'Shame on You!' While Testifying

Actor got angry during trial to resolve dueling lawsuits between him and his ex-assistant
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 1, 2023 2:02 AM CDT
De Niro Gets Angry During Trial
Actor Robert De Niro arrives to court in New York, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023.   (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Frustrated in court amid a civil trial to resolve dueling lawsuits between him and his former employee, Robert De Niro shouted at her Tuesday before quickly glancing at the judge and apologizing. The actor sued Graham Chase Robinson in 2019 after she resigned, and she quickly sued him right back; a jury is hearing testimony to resolve both suits, People reports. The yelling came, according to Deadline, after De Niro was asked whether he'd ever spoken on the phone with Robinson while in the bathroom and audibly urinating, and De Niro—whose anger had been mounting as Robinson's attorney lobbed various accusations at him, per the Guardian—shouted toward Robinson, "Shame on you, Chase Robinson!" Robinson started working as De Niro's personal assistant in 2008 and eventually rose to the position of Vice President for Production and Finance at his company, Canal.

"Give me a break with this stuff. You got us all here for this?" the 80-year-old actor said toward the end of his time on the stand Tuesday. "I don't take liberties with people who work for me," he said, and the accusation that he did so with Robinson is "so ridiculous, I don't know what to say. ... There was never any lewdness or disrespect or weirdness that you're trying to imply." Robinson alleges gender discrimination, wage theft, and retaliatory behavior, and also claims De Niro hurled verbally abusive and/or sexist comments toward her as well as made uncomfortable requests of her, like asking her to scratch his back. Asked about this in court, he made a gesture seeming to indicate what one would do if they needed help scratching a hard-to-reach itch on their back. "Every little thing she's trying to get me on is nonsense!" he reportedly said.

For his part, De Niro alleges Robinson stole from the company (as well as binge-watched "astounding hours of TV shows" during her working hours). On the stand, he did admit to calling her a "b----" at one point and at another time telling her off after she failed to call him from Europe, where she was working remotely, to wake him up in time for an important appointment. "I berated her," the actor testified. "I wasn't abusive. I was annoyed. ... I've raised my voice. I don't yell. You wanna dispute that? That's one thing I don't do." He said he may have called her "petulant," "snippy," and a "f------ spoiled brat." He also scoffed about what he called "preposterous" claims Robinson made in a draft letter of recommendation she wanted him to sign after she resigned; he said he refused to do so because she had vastly inflated her work at his company. (More Robert De Niro stories.)

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