The Wall Street Journal-20080126-Judith Regan Settles Suit With News Corp-
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Judith Regan Settles Suit With News Corp.
Ending a major public dispute in the book-publishing industry, Judith Regan and News Corp. settled a wrongful-termination lawsuit stemming from her firing in December 2006.
It was unclear how much money Ms. Regan received as part of the settlement. She had earlier turned down an offer above $6 million, according to a people familiar with the matter.
The publisher was fired after being accused of making anti-Semitic remarks during a conversation with an attorney employed by News Corp.'s HarperCollins Publishers. Ms. Regan denied making such comments, and her lawyers said a third party who overheard the conversation supported her position. Ms. Regan sought $100 million in compensatory damages when she filed the suit in New York State Supreme Court in November.
"After carefully considering the matter, we accept Ms. Regan's position that she did not say anything that was anti-Semitic in nature, and further believe that Ms. Regan is not anti-Semitic," News Corp. said in a statement Friday.
Ms. Regan was behind best-selling titles such as Jenna Jameson's "How to Make Love Like a Porn Star" and Jose Canseco's "Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big."
In the same news release Friday, Ms. Regan, who spent more than a decade with News Corp., said: "I am grateful for the opportunity to have worked with so many gifted people and am looking forward to my next venture." In a phone interview, Bert Fields, a Hollywood lawyer who represents Ms. Regan, said he wasn't surprised the two sides settled. "It is better for her to get on with her life," he said.
Allan Mayer, a spokesman for Ms. Regan, declined to comment on the settlement. News Corp. also owns The Wall Street Journal's publisher, Dow Jones & Co.
In her suit, Ms. Regan claimed she was fired without cause by News Corp., HarperCollins Publishers and Jane Friedman, chief executive of HarperCollins.
Her suit also claimed that "a senior executive in the News Corp. organization" advised her to conceal information that could harm Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign. At the time the suit was filed, the former New York City mayor was considered the front-runner in the campaign to win the Republican Party's presidential nomination.
Ms. Regan's relationship with News Corp. began to sour in November 2006, when there was a strong public reaction to her plans to publish a book by O.J. Simpson titled "If I Did It." The book eventually was canceled and picked up by another publisher.
