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Cape Town - It’s as if no one told Robert De Niro’s former employee that life was gonna be this way!
Chase Robinson, who was hired as an assistant by the actor’s company Canal Productions in 2008, has been sued for $6m (R90m) for binge-watching the popular sitcom Friends during work hours, Variety reports.
In 2017 Robinson was promoted to vice president of production and finance, and as part of her job she was in charge of overseeing employees’ use of company funds, Metro UK reports. When she resigned in April, she wrote herself a recommendation letter and tried to get De Niro to sign it.
But after it came to light that she’d watched 55 episodes of Friends in four days while at work, ordered takeaways at the company’s expense and caused general financial mayhem, Robinson was slammed with a lawsuit by the production company, GQ reports.
"Watching shows on Netflix wasn’t in any way part of or related to the duties and responsibilities of Robinson’s employment and was done for her personal entertainment, amusement and pleasure at times when she was being paid to work,” the lawsuit states, adding that she’d also binge-watched 20 episodes of Arrested Development and 10 episodes of Schitt’s Creek.
The former employee hasn’t yet commented on the lawsuit but did send an email to De Niro’s company, dismissing claims that she used the company’s credit card for personal items.
The company alleges she submitted false documents to be paid for 96 days of unused leave while also using company funds to fly to Los Angeles, claiming that she’d had to "pick up and deliver signed coffee table books based on De Niro’s film Taxi Driver".
