'Shame on you': Robert De Niro lashes out across courtroom at 'brat' former assistant in abuse case

Actor Robert De Niro shouted "shame on you" as he testified against his former assistant who is seeking $12 million (£9.8m) over claims he was abusive toward her.

In a New York courtroom, De Niro, 80, directed the comments towards his former employee.

Graham Chase Robinson watched with her lawyers while De Niro's anger built.

Attorney Andrew Macurdy pelted the actor with some tabloid-style accusations Ms Robinson made about De Niro's behaviour toward her while she worked for him from 2008 until 2019.

Ms Robinson, 41, is seeking damages for emotional distress and reputational harm that she claims has left her jobless and unable to recover from the trauma of working for De Niro.

She was making $300,000 (£246,000) annually when she quit, frustrated by her interactions with De Niro's girlfriend and the effect she believed the girlfriend was having on the actor.

The jury is also considering evidence pertaining to a lawsuit De Niro filed against Ms Robinson in which he claimed that she stole things from him, including five million points that could be used for airline flights.

De Niro is seeking the return of three years of her salary.

Mr Macurdy asked De Niro whether it was true that he sometimes urinated as he spoke with Ms Robinson on the telephone, during the hearing on Tuesday.

“That's nonsense,” De Niro answered. “You got us all here for this?”

Mr Macurdy told De Niro he called Robinson a "b**** to her face.”

“I was never abusive, ever,” the actor snapped back, though he conceded that he might have used the word in conversations with her.

And the claim he told Ms Robinson he preferred she scratch his back rather than using a back scratching device drew another angry rebuke from De Niro, who said it might have happened once or twice, but "never was with disrespect or lewdness."

He then angrily looked toward Ms Robinson and shouted: “Shame on you, Chase Robinson!”

Quickly, he blurted an apology in a quieter voice, as he glanced toward Judge Lewis J. Liman.

The actor admitted there were no written rules for those who worked for him because, he said, he relied on the “rules of common sense.”

He said he promoted Ms Robinson with the title of vice president of his company, Canal Productions, at her request but he added that her duties didn't change.

Asked if he once yelled at her when she was in Europe and had failed to call and remind him of an important meeting in California, De Niro answered that he hadn't, only to quickly add: “I raised my voice.”

“I got angry that one time,” he said. “I berated her. I wasn't abusive. I was upset.”

“You called her a brat,” Mr Macurdy said.

“I could have,” De Niro answered.

Sometimes, De Niro sounded like he wanted to leave the witness stand. “I don't have time for this,” he said at one point.

He rejected Mr Macurdy's suggestion that he sued Ms Robinson before she sued him because he wanted publicity.

“It draws attention to me. It's the last thing I wanted to do,” De Niro said.

De Niro has won two Oscars in a six-decade movie career that has featured memorable roles in films including The Deer Hunter and Raging Bull.

He is one of the frontmen of Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon, a three-and-a-half-hour long spectacle released last week and already receiving award buzz.

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