Chris Noth’s tequila company loses $12 million acquisition deal after sexual assault allegations
Talks to buy Chris Noth’s tequila brand Ambhar for $12 million have been axed in the wake of sexual assault allegations raised against the “Law & Order” and “Sex and the City” star.
Three women have accused the 67-year-old actor of sexual misconduct — all of which Noth has denied.
Entertainment Arts Research, Inc. (EARI), a beverage company, had been in talks “for a number of months” about acquiring Ambhar in a $12 million agreement, “but has taken the decision to terminate all further discussions regarding the acquisition,” the company announced in a press release Friday.
The company said the deal was off due to “the recent allegations that have come to light against the actor.”
“While Ambhar Tequila was an attractive acquisition target for us, at this point in time it doesn’t make sense for us to move forward with this deal in light of the claims, which must be taken with the utmost seriousness,” CEO Bernard Rubin said in a statement.
“We continue to be on the lookout for spirit brands that fit EARIs ethos of social responsibility,” the press release added.
The website for Ambhar is defunct as of Monday.
A spokesperson for Noth, who became a majority stake owner of Ambhar in 2018, said Monday that no definitive agreement was ever signed.
Noth has also been dropped from CBS’s series “The Equalizer,” the network said in a joint statement Monday with the show’s production company, Universal Television. Universal Television is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News.
He will be seen in one coming episode already set to air and in reruns of previous episodes.
“Chris Noth will no longer film additional episodes of The Equalizer, effective immediately,” the statement said.
The talent agency A3 Artists also dropped Noth, it confirmed Saturday.
Peloton also pulled an ad featuring Noth that referred to his character in the “Sex and the City” revival, “And Just like That...,” which was released this month.
Two women came forward to accuse Noth of rape in an article from The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday.
Zoe, 40, and Lily, 31 — pseudonyms THR used to protect their identities — alleged that the incidents occurred more than a decade apart, in Los Angeles in 2004 and New York in 2015, respectively, according to THR. The two women approached the publication “separately, months apart,” and do not know each other, the magazine said.
Noth denied the allegations in a statement last week, saying: “The accusations against me made by individuals I met years, even decades, ago are categorically false. These stories could’ve been from 30 years ago or 30 days ago — no always means no — that is a line I did not cross.”
A third accuser came forward in a Daily Beast report published Friday. The woman said Noth assaulted her while she was working as a hostess and lounge singer at a Manhattan restaurant in 2010, when she was 18 and Noth was 55. The author of the article said in the Daily Beast report that she was friends with the accuser.
A spokesperson for Noth said last week: “The story is a complete fabrication, and the alleged accounts detailed throughout read like a piece of bad fiction. Chris has no knowledge of who this individual is and, as stated yesterday, has and would never cross that line.”
NBC News has not independently spoken to the women or corroborated any of their accounts.
This story first appeared on NBCNews.com.