De Niro's former assistant's secret recordings comparing the actor's current and former partners played in court
- Graham Chase Robinson continued on the witness stand in her $12 million gender discrimination against Robert De Niro.
- She and a co-worker could be heard comparing notes on De Niro's current and former partners in secret audio she took.
It seems there wasn't a woman in Robert De Niro's orbit that his former executive assistant didn't spar with.
Graham Chase Robinson, continued on the witness stand Monday in her $12 million gender discrimination and retaliation claim against the two-time Oscar-winning actor and his company Canal Productions in Manhattan federal court, detailing her feuds with his ex-wife, Grace Hightower, his current girlfriend, Tiffany Chen, and his business partner, Jane Rosenthal, CEO of Tribeca Enterprises.
Robinson, who worked for De Niro from 2008 to 2019, claims that De Niro verbally abused her, relegated her to "stereotypical duties like housework" and paid her less than male employees because she was a single career woman who didn't have a family to support. De Niro has denied the allegations, calling them "all nonsense."
De Niro hit back with a countersuit against the former executive assistant claiming she stole five million frequent flyer miles from him and racked up thousands of dollars on unauthorized taxi fares, pricey restaurants, and gourmet groceries on his company's American Express Gold card. The "Cape Fear" actor also said she spent her days binging Netflix while she claimed to be overworked. In court documents, Robinson denied these allegations, The New York Times reported.
The jury in this trial will decide on both suits at the same time, and the jurors have already heard an airing of dirty laundry in the case.
In secret audio recordings played in court made by Robinson, she and a co-worker could be heard comparing notes on De Niro's current and former love interests.
"Who do you think is worse Grace or Tiffany?" Robinson asks the actor's accountant, Michael Tasch.
"Tiffany," he responds. "She's a fucking psychopath. I figured her out in about two minutes. She thought she was Mrs. De Niro from the beginning. Every time she gets off the phone with him, she's mad at him."
The ex-wife doesn't fare much better in employee ranking.
In the recording, Robinson referred to Hightower as "fucking nuts" and "the devil you knew" who would "bully" her and stare her down.
Robinson already testified last Friday that she clashed instantly with Chen, an actor and martial arts expert who moved in with De Niro in the fall of 2018.
Robinson said that she believed that Chen was jealous of her relationship with the "Raging Bull" actor and wanted her out of the couple's lives.
When Chen complained she was getting sick from a mold problem in the actor's Upper Eastside townhouse, lawyers for De Niro aim to show that Robinson dragged her heels on mitigating the health problem. Instead of fulfilling her obligation to her employer's girlfriend, she can be heard on recordings played in court calling Chen a "sociopath" who suffered from Munchausen syndrome — a psychological condition in which the afflicted person fabricates the ailment.
Tribeca boss Rosenthal, De Niro's business partner, was also the target of Robinson's ire.
The ambitious assistant hoped to leverage her position as the actor's high-paid gofer into a career in film development and producing, but she thought Rosenthal was holding her back.
De Niro's lawyers showed the jury a list that enumerated all of the slights she suffered from Rosenthal.
Her gripes range from not being acknowledged in Tribeca productions she assisted with to vague statements, like "Vendetta against me" and "Picks on me."
Robinson testified on Friday that she had heard De Niro refer to Rosenthal as a "bitch" and "cunt."
The executive assistant, who enjoyed lavish perks like, free air travel, $15,000 Christmas bonuses, and a Rolex watch — compliments of De Niro — on her birthday, must also defend herself from the "Taxi Driver" actor's countersuit claiming she stole from him and breached her fiduciary duty to his company.
Lawyers for De Niro on Monday sought to show that Robinson used her company benefits for her personal gain, including flying to London on the actor's dime so she could pitch her own film project to a producer there.
Her testimony is expected to continue on Tuesday.