“The balls, the nerve, the chutzpah,” Mr. De Niro responded. “The sense of entitlement. How dare her.”
Lawyers for Mr. De Niro, 80, portrayed Ms. Robinson, 41, as someone who exploited the trust and generosity of her boss, who had already given her significant perks and gifts — including a Rolex watch and part of a vacation in Hawaii — while also agreeing to pay her a salary of $300,000 per year in 2019, far more than other Canal office workers were paid. They argued that even though she received title changes, per her own request, her job responsibilities remained that of a personal assistant throughout her 11-year employment, and they repeatedly underscored the fact that she had not made any formal complaint over gender discrimination until she had been accused of financial improprieties.
After Ms. Robinson’s resignation, remaining Canal employees scrutinized her spending on a company Amex card; the company ultimately alleged in its lawsuit that in the final two years or so of her employment, Ms. Robinson improperly spent more than $12,600 of the company’s money at an Italian restaurant near her home on the Upper East Side, about $32,000 on car services and nearly $9,000 on personal food items. The company also objected to her charging it for 62 vacation days that she claimed were unused over about three years.
Several current and former employees at Canal Productions testified that there were no written policies around expenses, with Mr. De Niro testifying that his policies included “common sense” and the “honor system.”
Ms. Robinson asserted that nothing she charged had been unauthorized and that her company credit card also reflected charges by and for others at the office. She testified that she and her boss had had several discussions about the perks she was allowed, which she said included converting Canal’s credit card points into personal airline miles and to order Ubers instead of using the subway so she could always be available for his calls. (Once, she testified, he called at around 11 p.m. asking for a martini from Nobu, the upscale restaurant franchise of which Mr. De Niro is a founder.)
She also testified that Mr. De Niro had agreed to let her transfer all off the company’s credit card points over to airline miles, though the actor acknowledged allowing only a certain number of miles, testifying that it had perhaps been “a million or two.”
