Robert De Niro’s company told to pay $1.2 million to ex-assistant in gender discrimination case

A jury has awarded more than $1.2 million to Robert De Niro’s former assistant in a gender discrimination lawsuit filed against the actor and his production company. A jury said Robert De Niro’s company should pay more than $1.2 million to his former personal assistant after finding his production company engaged in gender discrimination and retaliation. Then, he looked at her sitting between her lawyers in the well of the courtroom and shouted: “Shame on you, Chase Robinson!” De Niro said Robinson was wrong to take 5 million airline miles from his company’s accounts, but he acknowledged that he had told her that she could take 2 million miles and that there were no strict rules. He said jurors could order Robinson to return some of her salary, but, he added: “We’re not looking for you to punish her.” In his closing, Robinson attorney Brent Hannafan called the two weeks of court proceedings a civil-rights trial and urged jurors to return a verdict “not just for Ms. Robinson, but for all civil-rights litigants.” De Niro has won two Oscars over the last five decades in films such as “Raging Bull” and “The Deer Hunter.” He’s in the Martin Scorsese film “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which is in theaters now.