Robert De Niro’s Company Has Filed A £5 Million Suit Against An Ex-Employee (For Binge Watching Friends And Using His Airline Points)

In bizarre celebrity news: Robert De Niro{ =nofollow}’s company has filed a £5 million lawsuit against a former employee - accusing her of watching a staggering 55 episodes of Friends over four working days.

Sounds pretty bad, right? But that’s not all: Canal Productions, De Niro{ =nofollow}’s loan-out company, also claim that former employee Chase Robinson spent thousands on personal expenses —and used millions of De Niro’s frequent flyer miles for her own trips.

The lawsuit, according to Variety{ =nofollow}, alleges that the employee — who was hired as an assistant and rose up to become vice president of production and finance — spent ‘astronomical amounts of time’ kicking back and watching TV.

As well as Friends, Robinson also enjoyed 20 episodes of Arrested Development and 10 episodes of Schitt’s Creek during four days in March.

The lawsuit further states that ‘watching shows on Netflix was not in any way part of or related to the duties and responsibilities of Robinson’s employment and, on information and belief, was done for her personal entertainment, amusement and pleasure at times when she was being paid to work.’

Robinson was also accused of spending thousands of dollars on Uber trips and food at restaurants, with the lawsuit claiming that she even ordered herself a £1,000 bouquet of flowers for her birthday.

According to lawyers, when she resigned in April, Robinson allegedly wrote a recommendation letter for herself, calling the allegations of reckless spending ‘ridiculous’.

(De Niro refused to sign it, obviously.)

Robinson was promoted to vice-president of production and finance in 2017, and the lawsuit stated that 'Robinson's position required Mr De Niro to place full faith, trust and confidence in her that she would carry out her duties and responsibilities in Canal's best interests, mindfully overseeing the finances and other employees.'