A jury awarded more than $1.2 million to Robert De Niro’s former personal assistant Thursday, finding that a company he formed to look after his personal needs was liable for gender discrimination and retaliation after the former assistant accused the actor of subjecting her to a toxic work environment.

While the jury found De Niro was not personally liable for the abuse, they said his company, Canal Productions, should make two payments of $632,142 to his longtime personal assistant, Graham Chase Robinson.

[Seems to be a good day for plaintiffs, no? I didn’t follow this trial as much as I did the ‘Taking Care of Maya’ case, but I did suspect that it would end badly for DeNiro after an outburst in court. He reportedly yelled “SHAME!” at the plaintiff in front of the jury, which probably went a long way to corroborating the plaintff’s allegations of an abusive work environment. Maybe he should have played the strong, silent type. — Ed]