PLATELL’S PEOPLE: If De Niro was such a monster, why did his PA stay with him for 11 years?
Forget the blood, sweat and tears in Raging Bull and Goodfellas. This week, Robert De Niro faced the toughest battle of his life: a claim of “gender discrimination” from ex-employee Graham Chase Robinson – who earned $300,000 a year.
In the culmination of a four-year legal battle, Robinson says in her $12 million lawsuit against the Hollywood legend that she has suffered “severe emotional distress and reputational damage.”
Although he didn’t make any sexual advances on her, he had the nerve to ask her to scratch his back twice.
De Niro was so demanding that he even called her at 6:30 a.m. one Sunday to access his computer, and asked her to order him a martini from Nobu at 11 p.m.
Crikey, most working women even a fraction of that would have thought these trivial requests were part of the job.
This week, Robert De Niro (L) faced the toughest battle of his life: a “gender discrimination” claim from ex-employee Graham Chase Robinson (R) – who earned $300,000 a year
Robinson, now 41, goes on to claim that the Meet The Fockers star once ‘yelled at her’ after she failed to wake him up for an important meeting.
Despite this, he promoted her to vice president of his company. Many would have fired her.
De Niro is suing Robinson for $6 million, accusing his former PA of transferring $300,000 worth of Air Miles to her personal account, spending a lot of money on personal items, food and travel. (Some of it was on Ubers – didn’t she know he was a taxi driver?)
All I know is that the 21st century is a terrible time to be a man
Robinson has done her best to portray De Niro, 80, as a tyrant.
Yet she was not a downtrodden lackey, but a senior staff member who occasionally received an ill-timed request – with a salary that exceeded most people.
Why work for him for eleven years if he was such a monster?
By presenting himself as some kind of #MeToo victim and him as Harvey Weinstein for a pat on the back, it makes a mockery of real victims of sexual violence.
As De Niro said in court, “It was never disrespect, immorality or any kind of weirdness. . Shame on you, Chase Robinson!”
The court will decide who is right. All I know is that the 21st century is a terrible time to be a man.
A good guy promotes an ambitious woman, rewards her for loyalty, and then the little focker tries to take him down for a fortune. It’s enough to make you angry at the ingratitude.
Excitement about the release of the last Beatles song Now And Then, made from a demo tape by John Lennon. Now that I’ve heard it, even a Beatles fan like me knows it’s less Strawberry Fields Forever and more a limp, half-eaten raspberry trifle that’s been out of the fridge too long.
A sharp comment
In WhatsApp messages released for the Covid investigation, we learn that Dominic Cummings wanted to – creepily – “personally handcuff” Helen MacNamara and escort her out of Number 10 because he could no longer cope with “dodging stilettos from those asshole’.
Particularly baffling because the sophisticated career civil servant Ms. MacNamara, in drab gray suits and flats, looks as if she has never worn a stiletto in her life.
With declining testosterone, waning libido, thinning hair, exhaustion and insomnia, 49-year-old Robbie Williams claims he is going through ‘manopause’. Isn’t there a feminine condition that wimpy men couldn’t appropriate to justify their lack of performance in the bedroom?
Then they will tell us that they have suffered from premenstrual tension for years because they are married to a woman.
A suit as wrinkled as a rhino
The orphaned baby rhino in its warm coat that Charles petted during a trip to Nairobi National Park was better dressed than him
First he sits in Kenya wringing his hands about the ‘abhorrent and unjustifiable’ violence of colonial Britain, then he appears in a video in which he addresses the British AI summit and warns about the risks of artificial intelligence.
Now we hear that King Charles will deliver the opening speech at the COP28 climate change summit in Dubai.
Didn’t he promise not to get involved in politics anymore when he came to the throne? The least he could have done was apologize for his ill-fitting, crumpled old suits.
The orphaned baby rhino in his warm coat that Charles petted during a trip to Nairobi National Park was better dressed than he was.
A senior Hamas official calls for the “destruction” of Israel and vows to repeat the October 7 atrocities “again and again,” claiming his terrorists did not want to harm civilians.
Try telling that to Israeli forensic teams still trying to identify the remains of slaughtered innocents: a small bag containing the body of a dead baby “with a clearly visible footprint on its neck.” Only one thing needs to be ‘destroyed’: the slaughterers of Hamas.
Fifteen long years after Victoria Beckham launched her fashion company, it is finally turning a profit, having been bailed out by the Beckham empire for £30 million over the years.
Well done Posh, but your latest offering of £150 T-shirts, £2,000 dresses, £690 cardigans and £95 for lace tights has most of us fashion-loving women thinking. . . too fancy for me.
Ta-ra to Zara – finally
Zara McDermott blames viewers and insists they didn’t take her seriously after her Love Island past
After being ignominiously voted out of Strictly’s dance-off three weeks in a row and saved twice by the judges, former reality TV contestant turned underage BBC documentary maker Zara McDermott is blaming viewers and insists they shouldn’t let her took seriously after her Love Island. past.
Not true, dear: you’re a rubbish dancer and not even the Beeb’s blatant attempts to keep its employees in can save you.
Armistice Day test for the Met
The threat of a million protesters heading to London for Armistice Day this weekend has the potential to drown out the sacred two minutes of silence in which we pause to remember our glorious dead – and poses an existential threat to the police.
If the Met cannot control the disrespectful elements of the crowds in our streets, we will lose confidence in them forever.
Marks & Spencer has issued a groveling apology for its Christmas advert after hysterical people claim burning red, green and silver paper hats in a fireplace refer to the Palestinian flag. And this year, people protested against the store to protest “collaboration with the racist settler state of Israel.”
The only way to stop anti-Semites from destroying beloved institutions like M&S – co-founded by a British Jew – is to vote with our wallets. You can pre-order their turkey crown, lobster and shrimp cocktails. I just bought mine.
First Netflix has brought Princess Diana back to life as a ghost in The Crown. Now it has aired Mohamed Fayed’s claim that she was pregnant with his son Dodi. This despite a coroner claiming it wasn’t true and a friend saying Diana had her period just days before the crash. A crowning glory.
Westminster Wars
It is mysterious why Keir Starmer apparently removed his poppy from his jacket before posting a message in support of ‘Islamophobia Awareness Month’. Why would a poppy offend Muslims when 5.5 million people fought on the Allied side in World War II and almost 1.5 million people died in battle?
During Rishi’s love affair with Elon Musk at the AI summit, the X/Twitter boss predicted that eventually no one will have to work anymore
The Jewish people, meanwhile, are wondering when the Labor leader will raise awareness about their persecution. Police in London have recorded a 1,353 percent increase in anti-Semitic attacks since October 7, compared to a 140 percent increase in attacks on Muslims.
During Rishi’s love affair with Elon Musk at the AI summit, the X/Twitter boss predicted that eventually no one will have to work anymore. The Prime Minister could have told him that more than ten million working-age Britons are without a job. Who pays for their benefits? Those of us who still work and pay taxes.
Her popularity plummeted after an affair and leaving her husband of 22 years, but now mum-of-nine Amanda Owen, the ‘Yorkshire Shepherdess’, is back with hubby Clive for a new TV series to celebrate her save reputation. Who is being laughed at here? Viewers or poor cuckold Clive, who has already been put out to pasture by his wife?