New York Times Shares Fall After Weinstein Threatens Lawsuit

(Bloomberg) -- New York Times Co. shares fell the most in almost two months after a movie mogul threatened to sue the publisher over its article detailing allegations of sexual harassment.

Times shares dipped as much as 2.5 percent to $19.50 Friday, the biggest intraday decline in two months. Harvey Weinstein, famous for releasing Oscar winners such as “The English Patient” and “Shakespeare in Love,” took a leave of absence from his production company following the New York Times article on Thursday.

Actress Ashley Judd was among the people in the article who say they were harassed by the producer, who has been a fixture in Hollywood power circles for almost four decades. Weinstein has reached at least eight settlements with women, the newspaper reported, citing unnamed officials at the Weinstein Co., the film and TV production company Harvey founded in 2005 with his brother Bob.

Charles Harder, an attorney working with Weinstein, said in a statement that the article was “saturated with false and defamatory statements” and that his client is preparing to sue the newspaper. Harder is best known for winning a $140 million invasion of privacy lawsuit on behalf of wrestler Hulk Hogan against the website Gawker.

The New York Times has said it's confident in the accuracy of its story.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gerry Smith in New York at gsmith233@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Crayton Harrison at tharrison5@bloomberg.net, Rob Golum