What’s a little vegetable plagiarism, among friends?
Jerry Seinfeld defended his wife’s honor on Monday night on David Letterman, claiming that any similarity between his wife’s book, Deceptively Delicious, and Missy Chase Lapine’s book, The Sneaky Chef, is just a coincidence. Also, a coincidence: HarperCollins rejected The Sneaky Chef a few months before they published Jessica Seinfeld’s version of it.
Right about now, James Frey and Kaavya Viswanathan are probably wishing they had married successful entertainers.
Along with claiming the whole thing was a fluke, Seinfeld denied that it even qualifies as plagiarism:
I love the term ‘plagiarism’ for this little event … Because it used to be you had to really take a theme from a major novel, some sort of literary narrative. Now, you’re in your kitchen making brownies, you sneak a little spinach in there, your name’s dragged through the mud.
Just one second, there, Mr. Seinfeld. Who’s name is being dragged through the mud, your wife’s or Missy Chase Lapine’s?
As Seinfeld admitted, if his claims of his wife’s innocence give more attention to the incident, he could always come back on Letterman to defend her again. Missy Chase Lapine is just some lady. After this is over, the closest she’ll get to Letterman is watching old YouTube clips of Seinfeld doing stand-up on the show.
It’s impossible to know if Jessica Seinfeld really did steal from Missy Chase Lapine. But with a $32 million Hamptons pad, she should bounce back from the accusations.
Editorial Director
This appearance was just sad and cruel. He called that poor woman a “whacko” about 30 times within the span of 3 minutes on network television. It wasn’t fun or funny.
I can’t believe he went on Letterman to trash this other woman and that Letterman allowed it. Sure, he’s worth a fortune but he’s still an idiot and yes, his wife probably did steal the other woman’s book, funny how the other book was rejected just prior to Jessica’s book getting published, just having access to Jerry and Oprah the publisher knew where to put their support
Jerry certainly did slander this poor woman, Ms. Lapine. It’s obvious to me that Jessica Seinfeld has some explaining to do.
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.
The whole thing was disgusting. Letterman should invite Lapine to his show, so that she can defend herself from despicable Jerry Seinfeld’s accusations. She has done nothing but write a book that was clearly plagiarized by Jessica Sklar Nederlander Seinfeld–who, as most of us in New York know, is famous for being a cheater.
Ah, Seinfeld defending his gold-digging whore. How touching.
Havent we seen enough from the Seinfelds to last a lifetime now? This guy has lost it since going into hiding post Seinfeld show era. Went out and bought 28 Mercedes. The Imelda Marcos shoe gifting to Oprah really took the cake to show the Hollywood Elite are all connected and rubbing each others backs for further self indulgence.
Shame on him and her. That was a pitiful interview on Letterman and David too is part of that whole Elite Group.
The old adage goes “Hollywood is just high school with money,” and it’s 100% true. As a writer in the “industry,” let me tell you, if you think 90% of the movies that get made occur any other way than Star A saying to Star B over their 2000 dollar lunch “Hey, we could make a movie about that! Let’s get Star C to do this… I’ll call my agent, whom I pay to make sure I have no clue how the business I make a living off of works,” you’re kidding yourself.
But that was just a rant. I love Seinfeld the show, and I’m a big fan of Larry David (the REAL creator and writer/story editor for over 100 episodes). But Jerry Seinfeld the man is absolutely insane, and he isn’t worth the film the show he lucked into is captured on.
If you want to see the real Jerry Seinfeld, go to CNN’s page and watch him flip out on iconic Larry King for joking that Seinfeld “canceled them,” and that his show “didn’t get canceled.”
What a crock.
Read the New York Times article yesterday, where Jessica tells the latest (and most ridiculous) version of how she met Jerry, supposedly after she dumped Nederlander, even though all the facts and the interviews at the time contradict her spin?
The woman is a pathological liar. Of course she’s a plagiarist.
I hope Lapine sues Jessica for plagiarism and Jerry for libel and defamation. Accusing her of being a whacko, angry, hysterical and a “would be assasin” and Letterman permitting this name-calling on his show!
His wife is a do-gooder? And three named folks being “would be assasins”? Well, what does that say about Jessica Nederlander Seinfeld?!
I always remember Letterman gasping during one of his monologues 9 years ago that “Jerry Seinfeld is dating a married woman!”
Jerry is just another “don’t-you-know-who-I-am,” overpaid, self-indulgent twit who thinks being rich gives him a license to do anything he wants. Here is slandering an honest author who was ripped off by his wife after he tried to cheat a realtor out of her commission and had to be ordered by a court to pay her and built a full-size baseball diamond on his Hamptons estate without the required permits. Clearly, he thinks rules don’t apply to him so it should have been no surprise that he wouldn’t hesitate to cheat with another man’s wife.
Jerry is a megalomaniac who likes to date minors and married women. Jessica is a whore and a plagiarist. The Seinfeld children will probably be in rehab or in jail by the time they turn 18.
The Seinfeld’s are bullies. Aside from being a goldigging whore, she is now also so obviously a plagiarist. How fitting. The truth is that they are just not very nice people and absent their wealth, not many people really like or want to befriend them. Jerry Seinfeld’s entire career is based around having fit the role that Larry David created for him. And for the record, Curb Your Enthusiasm is even smarter than Seinfeld. They prove that money does not buy class or integrity. Show some humility when you get caught knocking off someone else’s work. Missy did NOTHING to you Jessica.
Ms. Lapine should sue Seinfeld for slander.
Ugh. And now Nina/Jessica Sklar Nederlander Seinfeld is in the View? That whore should be banned from TV during daytime.
Well, Jessica might have gotten away with plagiarism, but everyone in New York knows she’s nothing more than an expensive prostitute.
Oh, Missy, I wish you the best of luck in the lawsuit. Here is to hoping you get millions and millions from the Seinfelds.