#Deal to acquire Chris Noth’s tequila brand gets nixed on sex assault allegations

The company that was set to buy the tequila company owned by Sex and the City star Chris Noth has called off the deal after two women accused the Mr. Big actor of sexual assault, The Post has learned.

Noth’s tequila brand — called Ambhar — was under contract to be purchased for $12 million by Entertainment Arts Research, a publicly traded beverage company.

But Entertainment Arts is joining Peloton — which pulled an ad featuring Noth — as the latest company backing away from the actor after the accusations surfaced Thursday.

“We thought it would be in our best interest to withdraw from the transaction,” Chief Executive Bernard Rubin told The Post on Friday.

Rubin called Ambhar on Friday to inform the company that the deal had been terminated. “It would have been disastrous for us,” Rubin said.

Entertainment Arts Research reached an agreement in August to buy Ambhar for $12 million and was just about to sign the final agreement this week when the unsavory news hit about the sexual assault allegations.

Noth, 67, has strongly denied the allegations.

Peloton pulled an add this week featuring Noth and Ryan Reynolds spoofing on Noth’s character in the recent reboot of Sex and the City – “And Just Like That…” The video was an attempt to make light of a scene in which Noth’s character, Mr. Big, dies of a heart attack after a spin on his Peloton. 

The tequila deal had been in the works for six months, when Rubin was looking to hitch his wagon to a celebrity-sponsored beverage similar to Casamigos Tequila, which was launched by George Clooney and Rande Gerber in 2013. Four years later it was bought for $1 billion by the beverage conglomerate Diageo.

Noth has been an investor and pitchman for the Ambhar since 2018, Rubin said. 

Ambhar’s chief executive, Jaime Celorio, declined to comment to The Post via a text message from Mexico.

In a statement to Page Six on Thursday, Noth said: “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. The encounters were consensual. It’s difficult not to question the timing of these stories coming out. I don’t know for certain why they are surfacing now, but I do know this: I did not assault these women.”