Robert De Niro made a low-key outing as he left a five-star hotel in New York on Thursday amid his ongoing gender discrimination lawsuit.
The Hollywood actor, 40, looked serious as he kept a low profile as he left the prestigious Greenwich Hotel.
He looked casual in beige trousers and a blue T-shirt, which he wore under a black sweater and a navy blue rain jacket.
The Taxi Driver star looked comfortable in a pair of black trainers and square glasses, as he hid his silver locks under a black cap.
His latest appearance comes after his girlfriend Tiffany Chen branded his former assistant as “psychotic” in fiery testimony during his discrimination trial.
Low profile: Robert De Niro made a low-key outing as he left a five-star hotel in New York on Thursday amid his ongoing gender discrimination lawsuit
Chen, 64, took the stand to slam De Niro’s former collaborator Graham Chase Robinson, who she claimed had an “imagined intimacy” with the Oscar winner.
De Niro is being sued by Robinson for alleged gender discrimination while she worked at his company Canal Productions from 2008 to 2019.
Her $12 million lawsuit was filed four years ago, shortly after De Niro sued her for misusing the company’s accounts.
On the fourth day of the trial on Thursday, Chen admitted that she pressured De Niro to fire Robinson after their relationship soured over issues including catering on his private jet and renovations to their Manhattan mansion.
Her testimony came after a number of hostile email and text exchanges between Chen, Robinson and De Niro were shown to the jury days earlier, including a 2 a.m. email from Chen to the actor that said: If you keep her (Robinson), you and I will. have problems’.
Robinson began working for De Niro in 2008 as his assistant and eventually rose to vice president of Canal Productions. It was reported that she had a salary of $300,000 when she resigned in April 2019.
Chen’s hostility toward Robinson was evident in her testimony, in which she compared the former assistant to the lead character from the 1992 hit “Single White Female,” reports The independent.
This included Chen agreeing with a description of Robinson as “obsessive, psychotic and dangerous.”
Casual: The Hollywood actor, 40, looked serious as he was seen keeping a low profile while leaving the prestigious Greenwich Hotel
Seriously: He looked casual in beige pants and a blue T-shirt, which he wore under a black sweater and a navy blue rain jacket
Two days earlier, De Niro became visibly irate and angry on the witness stand, which was echoed by Chen, who appeared upset that her intimate personal text exchanges were revealed to the court.
It stemmed from whether she had given De Niro an ultimatum to fire Robinson in 2018, the year before she resigned, which also included texts saying: “I won’t be happy until you tell me she’s looking for a replacement. . Keeping her around is just a slap in the face.”
When asked if she wrote the lyrics, she replied: “Yes, I wrote it.”
The court heard their relationship deteriorated after De Niro and Chen moved to a new mansion in 2018, the same year De Niro divorced his ex-wife Grace Hightower.
Robinson had a perceived lack of respect for the couple’s plans, the court heard, leading to a 2019 text message from Chen to De Niro that said: “Her possessive manner around the house makes me very uncomfortable.”
“Her sense of entitlement comes from this imagined intimacy she has with you,” the text added. “She thinks she’s your wife and has decided to become the lady of the house.”
Chen’s disapproval of Robinson’s attitude at the time included another text in March 2019 that said she had “had it with Chase’s bulls***.”
When asked if she believed Robinson believed she was in a relationship with De Niro, Chen said, “I think she knows she isn’t, but that makes her angry because she aspires to be in a relationship.”
“She definitely thinks she’s in charge of everyone,” Chen added.
Trial: His latest outing comes after his girlfriend Tiffany Chen (pictured in June) branded his former assistant “psychotic” in fiery testimony during his discrimination trial
Case: Chen, 64, (pictured in September) took the stand to slam De Niro’s former collaborator Graham Chase Robinson, who she claimed had an ‘imagined intimacy’ with the Oscar winner
In her lawsuit, Robinson alleged that De Niro humiliated her with menial tasks such as scratching his back, and claimed she was not paid as much as a male employee who she believed had similar responsibilities.
De Niro testified Tuesday that Robinson asked to be paid the same as his old trainer, which he refused because he had “traveled with me for 40 years and left his family to be with me for an extended period of time.”
He said, “She’s jealous of him.”
Further texts from Chen seemed to mention this disagreement, in which she told the Oscar winner, “If you keep her, you and I will end up being in trouble because you allowed her to become disrespectful to you and now she’s telling you know what she is going to do and what her job is.’
Chen also texted Michael Kaplan, another Canal Productions employee who testified at the trial, claiming that Robinson had sneaked into her bedroom and unplugged her electronics.
In the text she described the situation as ‘very Single White Female’, referring to the film. She elaborated on her thoughts in her testimony, saying she described a character who is “obsessive, crazy and dangerous.”
She said Robinson had a personality like “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide’, which would throw a dime around De Niro and ‘confuse the situation’.
Chen felt that her behavior towards the couple stemmed from the fact that she dreamed of being with the actor, adding, “I believed that she was living her whole life as a fantasy.”
“If her fantasies intrude on my personal life… I’m going to make things difficult for her,” she added. “She was attached to the control she thought she had in this dynamic.”
Chen was questioned in early 2019 over an argument over catering on a private jet, shortly before she resigned, as she and De Niro returned from a vacation in Antigua.
After learning that Robinson had specifically asked the flight attendants not to serve food during the flight, Chen texted De Niro, “I’m afraid her annoying alter ego will cause serious problems in the future if she isn’t called in now.”
‘She’s a mean, insecure, territorial girl and her behavior hasn’t just affected me, it affects everyone in your life in different ways.’
Graham Chase Robinson (pictured leaving court on Tuesday) claims De Niro treated her like his ‘office lady’ while she worked at his company Canal Productions
Robinson reportedly appeared unmoved as Chen charged at her from the witness stand, similar to when De Niro lost his cool during his testimony on Tuesday.
In a surprising moment, while on the stand, the Oscar-winning actor confronted his accuser and said before a stunned courtroom, “Shame on you, Chase Robinson! God da**it! I’m sorry.’
She claims in her lawsuit that De Niro treated her like an “office lady” and made her perform menial tasks, including washing his sheets and scratching his back. Robinson also claims she was paid less than a male employee who she said had similar responsibilities.
She is seeking $12 million in damages for severe emotional distress and reputational damage.
Her multimillion-dollar lawsuit was quickly launched after an initial lawsuit by De Niro’s Canal Productions in August 2019, accusing her of improper spending, including transferring more than $450,000 in airline miles from the company to her own personal account.
She is also accused of spending tens of thousands more on personal items, food and travel, and spending her days binge-watching Netflix.
Both lawsuits will be decided in the same trial, which is expected to last two weeks.