De Niro's company fined 1.3 million dollars
Cleaning, washing and then receiving sexual comments: A former assistant to Robert de Niro is fighting back against this gender-based discrimination. She is taking the Hollywood star's production company to court. She has now been awarded more than one million dollars.
The production company of Hollywood star Robert De Niro must pay over 1.2 million dollars (around 1.1 million euros) to the actor's former assistant - for gender discrimination, among other things. According to the New York Post, this has now been decided by a jury in Manhattan. De Niro was found not personally guilty by the court in New York after a two-week trial.
Graham Chase Robinson worked for Robert De Niro between 2008 and 2019. She claimed in the trial that he had subjected her to inappropriate behavior. She had claimed damages of twelve million US dollars for emotional distress and damage to her reputation.
In her lawsuit, the actor's former assistant claimed that she had been subjected to discrimination and harassment on the basis of her gender. De Niro allegedly subjected her to unwanted physical contact and asked her to scratch his back, among other things. In addition, the now 80-year-old made "sexually charged comments" and assigned her "stereotypically female tasks such as housework", such as doing laundry, vacuuming the apartment and organizing evening events - even after she had risen to a management position in the company. She had also not been paid enough and had not been compensated for countless hours of overtime.
Robinson herself was completely exonerated and not found guilty of any of the charges against her. Among other things, she had been accused by her former employer of taking accumulated frequent flyer miles from the company card.
Outside the courtroom, a lawyer for De Niro said, according to the New York Times, that he was pleased that the jury had not found the actor guilty himself. He went on to explain that he was not yet sure whether the production company would appeal against the verdict. De Niro was not in the courtroom when the verdict was announced. He had described the allegations as "nonsense" before the trial began.
The Hollywood processes surrounding gender discrimination allegations resulted in Robert De Niro's production company being fined a significant sum for their actions towards his former assistant. Despite this, Robert De Niro personally escaped guilt in the New York court, but the jury acknowledged the inappropriate behaviour and discriminatory practices, including entertainment-related tasks and sexual comments.
Source: www.ntv.de
