Jerry Seinfeld’s wife sued over Deceptively Delicious cookbook for kids
Jessica Seinfeld, cookbook author and wife of comedian Jerry Seinfeld, is being sued by the author of another kitchen how-to, accusing her of copyright infringement and defamation.
Missy Chase Lapine, author of The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids’ Favorite Meals, filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in New York on Monday alleging Seinfeld plagiarized Lapine’s book in writing her cookbook Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Getting your Kids Eating Good Food, published six months later.
“This action for copyright and trademark infringement and defamation arises from conduct that gives new meaning to the terms ‘arrogance’ and ‘greed,’” says the lawsuit, which lists what it alleges are examples of identical language in the two cookbooks.The suit also alleges Lapine alerted her publisher and Seinfeld’s to the similarities between the books before Deceptively Delicious came out in October.
The suit also addresses Jerry Seinfeld’s comments about Lapine in his defense of his wife in public appearances. On The Late Show with David Letterman in October, Seinfeld called Lapine a “wacko” who had been “waiting in the woodwork” for a chance to attack the Seinfelds.
“My wife never saw the book, read the book, never used the book,” he said.
Promoting Deceptively Delicious on The View in November, Jessica Seinfeld defended her collection of kid-friendly recipes.
“I can understand why she would have been frustrated,” she said. “It must have been hard to see how quickly my book took off. I never saw her book, I never saw her recipes, nor, as a person, would I ever do something like I was accused of doing.”
January 8th, 2008 at 7:06 am
I’ve been waiting for this. I have both books and couldn’t believe how much they were alike. Jessica’s book copied so much of the Sneaky Chef, it was incredible. How rude of the Jerry Seinfield to talk about the other author that way. They deserve to be sued.
January 8th, 2008 at 7:46 am
I saw that interview, and Jerry Seinfeld was quite arrogant. It was actually uncomfortable to watch. This should be interesting.
January 8th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Seinfeld plagarized that other book. She was promoting it on Oprah and then it sold like crazy of course. Oprah won’t slag this bitch ’cause she’s got money but she trashed that other guy.
The rich are different….and effing annoying.
January 8th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Jessica Seinfeld SO obviously copied and only minimally changed Missy Lapine’s cookbook and called it her own. Wow, READ THE LAWSUIT on “TheSmokingGun.com” website before you take my word. It’s so amazing to see all of the stuff that Jessica Seinfeld copied and changed very little from the real book by Missy Lapine.
I mean, my god, what is wrong with her agent, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh (who also represented the PLAGIARIST Kaavya Viswanathan from Harvard)? Does she think that the public is stupid? It’s sooooo simple to put the books together as the lawsuit papers show on thesmokinggun.com to see what happened. This makes Oprah look like an IDIOT!
Frankly, I don’t really care about the slanderous comments that Jerry Seinfeld made to try to publicly humiliate Missy Lapine. Ms. Lapine is soooooo far more of a class act than Jerry Seinfeld that it was pretty much a joke to me (like everything that Jerry says.) Besides, I’m fairly confident that the copyright infringement stands on it’s own merit. For crying out loud, it’s in INK!!!!
IT IS SHOCKING!!! Jessica Seinfeld is SO BUSTED! Jerry is going to have to pay out the whazoo for this one! Good for Missy!
January 8th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
There are way better tactics than hiding vegetables in food. If you’re gonna con your kid, might as well do it right:
Bribery: “If you eat your broccoli, I’ll give you an extra 50 cents for college.”
Blatent Honesty: “See this picture of Uncle Jimmy? We call him lardy. He didn’t eat kale.”
Hostile Negotiations: “If you don’t clean your plate, I’ll whip Buzz Lightyear with a fishing pole and shock him with cattle prod.”
Neuro-Linguistic Programming: “It’s funny how much the more you try to resist the natural urge to eat brussels sprouts , the more you keep wanting it, getting more and more excited about what you are tasting in your mouth at this very moment in time.”
Exploiting Sibling Competitiveness: “If you eat your carrots, I’ll love you way more than your brother.”
Jedi-Talk: “Try? There is no try. Just eat your goddamn vegetables.”
Good Cop/Bad Cop: “Dude. If I were you, I’d just stuff those carrots in your mouth. Mom’s coming and she’s on her 6th straight day of PMS. Don’t want to be on the receiving end of that monster.”
Sponteneous Egomania: “SPINACH?! You can’t handle the spinach! Son, I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Cheetos and curse the alfalfa sprouts. I would rather you just said “thank you,” and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest that you pick up that spinach and eat it like a man. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to.”
Injection of Guilt: “You have NO IDEA how many miles your father had to walk up the steep mountain, in Florida snow, carrying 50 pounds of oranges, wearing flipflops to get that tofu on your dinner plate.”
Dr. Phil: “Are you eating what you’re eating today because you want to eat it, or is it because it’s what you think you were eating yesterday when you were trying to finish eating? You moron, you don’t need to eat a horse’s genitals to spell your name.”
Starving Children in Africa Guilt: “If you don’t eat, I’m shipping YOUR ASS off to starve in Africa.” (thanks Mike)
The Rath of God, Buddha and Santa: “THEY ARE ALL WATCHING YOU RIGHT NOW.”
January 9th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, Jessica Seinfeld’s agent, has a history of stealing books (yes, already PUBLISHED material) and now she has stolen Missy Lapine’s book and GIVEN it to the dummmy Jessica Seinfeld. She was the agent for the Harvard sophomore who plagiarized a well-known novelist a year ago and then lost her $500K contract!!!! What, Ms. Walsh is fooled again!!! Give me a break!! Ms. Walsh is just motivated by greed without ethics. Only now, Missy Lapine has some bad-ass attorneys who are demanding a jury trial. Ms. Walsh is what is wrong in publishing. Poor Jessica! See what Jerry got you into!!!