Ms. Seinfeld in cookbook fracas
The New York Times is reporting that Jessica Seinfeld, the wife of comedian Jerry Seinfeld, has been having to field accusations of plagiarism relating to her new cookbook, Deceptively Delicious, a guide for parents of picky eaters.
[…] a number of readers posting on Amazon.com and Oprah.com and other Web sites have pointed out some similarities between Ms. Seinfeld’s book, which was published this month by Collins, an imprint of HarperCollins, and another cookbook published by Running Press, an imprint of the Perseus Books Group, in April.
That book, The Sneaky Chef, by Missy Chase Lapine, who is not a celebrity, also suggests that parents purée healthy foods like spinach and sweet potatoes and hide them in childhood favorites like macaroni and cheese or brownies.
Those sorts of similarities, the article suggests, are about as damning as it gets, which isn’t all that damning, if you ask us. Haven’t parents been using those techniques for centuries? And though Missy Chase Lapine is described as “not a celebrity,” she is the former publisher of Eating Well magazine, which means she’s not exactly a starving nobody.
The weird part of all this, however, is that no one involved is officially accusing Ms. Seinfeld.
“Honestly I can’t speculate, and I’m not going to accuse anyone of anything,” Ms. Lapine said. “I suppose it’s possible it’s a coincidence.”
Nevertheless, the speculation was enough to get Mr. Seinfeld himself on the phone with the Times reporter:
“Let’s be realistic — my wife isn’t in this for the money or the publicity.” He added, “I really don’t think we have another Watergate here.”
THIS IS A HUGE DEAL!
Point #1 - Ms. Lapine showed her book to HarperCollins (Ms. Seinfeld’s publisher) 6 months before Ms. Seinfeld. Ms. Lapine’s publisher had already made Ms. Seinfeld’s publisher change the book cover (which easily resembled Ms. Lapine’s book cover).
Point #2 - Ms. Seinfeld has the same agent from the William Morris Agency as the Harvard sophomore student who recently lost her book contract for copying another’s novel.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12594078/
Coincidence? You be the judge!
Holly you are an embarassment to logical women everywhere…if you think that Jennifer Walsh pushes her authors to plagiarize…well words fail me. The reality is that recipes like folktales travel through society.
TWO books which are:
both cookbooks
shown to the same publisher
in the same year
with the same UNIQUE recipes
on the same UNIQUE cooking concept
by authors who live in the same city
with nearly IDENTICAL book covers
both pitched to OPRAH
IS JUST A COINCIDENCE. No way, I smell a rat!
Make that Holly you’re an embarrassment to rational human beings everywhere, male or female. The manuscript for Seinfeld’s book was written in 2005, long before she would have had any access to Lapine’s book. Since the book wasn’t out until six months before Seinfeld’s came out, plagiarism would have required the complicity of Harper Collins. They would have had to reject Lapine’s manuscript, and then urge Seinfeld to inject Lapine’s ideas into her own cookbook.
The recipes aren’t unique either. The cooking concept is even further from unique. Have you ever integrated pureed vegetables into anything to mask their taste? Doesn’t take a great genius. The only one who smells like a rat is you.
This IS a HUGE deal to me. I put out the money to buy Seinfeld’s book only to find that it’s a virtual copy of the Lapine book I already own! Who’s going to reimburse me for the cost of the book? What were they thinking???