'This is all nonsense': Robert De Niro testifies in workplace abuse case

Robert De Niro "turned combative" in a New York court yesterday while being questioned over claims that he was an abusive boss, Deadline reported.

The actor's former assistant Graham Chase Robinson is suing him for $12 million (£10 million) in damages, for "severe emotional distress and reputational harm" – claims denied by De Niro as "nonsense". Each of them, said the entertainment news site, "blames the other" for their "troubled working relationship", which "ended with Robinson resigning". 

During an "ill-tempered" hearing, said Sky News, Robinson's lawyer told Manhattan Federal Court that the Oscar winner shouted at his client, called her abusive names and made sexist remarks, and then refused to provide a job reference when she quit in 2019 after working for him for 11 years.  

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De Niro is countersuing Robinson – who earned $300,000 (£247,000) a year as his assistant – alleging that she abused a company charge card for personal expenses and holidays.

According to the Daily Mail, the 80-year-old "seemed grouchy" as the court heard that Robinson "was tasked for years with everything from decorating De Niro's Christmas tree" and "taking him to the hospital when he fell down stairs" to "helping with greeting cards for his children". 

Asked if he thought Robinson had been a conscientious employee, he snapped: "Not after everything I'm going through now."

And he appeared unable to "restrain himself from erupting" after Robinson's lawyer, Andrew Macurdy, claimed their relationship soured after De Niro's girlfriend, Tiffany Chen, "became jealous" of his reliance on her. 

"This is all nonsense," De Niro told the court. 

His lawyer, Richard Schoenstein, told the court that Robinson was well treated by the star but "always thought she deserved more". De Niro was "kind, reasonable, generous," said Schoenstein, while his assistant was "condescending, demeaning, controlling, abusive" and "always played the victim".

The case continues.