Seinfeld Defends Wife Against Plagiarism Charges, Says She "Isn't In This For The Money Or The Publicity"

New York Times:

Jessica Seinfeld, the comedian Jerry Seinfeld's wife, has a hot best seller with "Deceptively Delicious," a cookbook for parents of picky eaters. Ms. Seinfeld's celebrity and an appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" have helped propel the book to the No. 1 spot on the hardcover Advice, How-To and Miscellaneous list in The New York Times, where it will make its debut a week from Sunday.

But 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.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[Shakespeares]

I seem to remember this golddigger leaving her millionaire fiancee at the altar basically to hook up with seinfeld at the peak of his popularity, but we misread her. She just wants to help families she says. Yeah, and she used to date broke.

[TJS]

Most celebrities have their books written by ghost writers. I wonder if we are seeing the beginning of a new phenomenon, the "ghost chef?" I seriously doubt that Mrs. Seinfeld came up with these recipes on her own. For that matter, I doubt that husband Jerry eats the stuff in his wife's book.

[drblack]

Oprah, Seinfeld are a bunch of no-talent arrogant scum bags.
They ride the coat tails of real talent and take the credit and money.
Anyone could do the jobs of either one.

[kirkland]

UGH! It is amazing to me how patronizing Seinfield , the Publisher , Oprah- all of them are when it comes to their assumption that those out of *the loop* will bob their heads like pooches watching a bisquit , following "their truth". VULGARIANS at the GATE! Could it be that the new peasant class ( common and vulgar, provincial ) are the nouveaux riche? Kinda like *1984* . What we see isn't *there* and what isn't *there*- we see. HA!
It is interesting to me to see Larry Davids work. He was the brilliance in Seinfield as he wrote TRUTH. Seinfield was a lucky guy to have Larry as his mouthpiece. He'd have been just another ny comic without him. He's has been smart enough to affiliate well ( David, Spielberg) and it seems to me that his wifes efforts and many of his at this point are just vanity pieces.
Big mistake , Jerry, Oprah, Nina ( Jessica) to underestimate how sophisticated John Q *is*.
Why do these people feel less ehtical than hookers to me?
hmmmmm.

[drblack]

Anyone who appears on oprah to sell their wares is silly and pointless. Almost as silly and pointless as oprah and her cult of believers. How is the secret working out for you.
Oprah makes it clear ,if you are poor or in bad health it is your fault. You just didn't believe hard enough.
Her tax write offs don't count as charity.

[sneezeguard]

"as a writer it pains me to think about the author whose books was rejected by harper collins coz she is not a big name celebrity, and they accepted jessica seinfeld's book with similar concept.th­is is just disgusting­..celebrit­ies have too much power in publishing"


HAAAAAHAAAAAA.

It costs HarperCollins about $100,000 to produce a book. That's net of printing and promotion or an advance for the author. So if you're a nobody with no ability to get on free media, then sorry, you ain't getting a book deal these days. The question you have to ask yourself "writer," is 'what do you bring to the table to mitigate Harper's risk of about $250,000'? If the answer is 'zippo' except for a well written manuscript, then you're in the same boat as millions of other nobodies with well written unpublished books. That's why skanky Madonna and Bill OReilly will write children's books, and why you'll always be a 'writer' and never an 'author.' Sorry to have to break it to you.

[Newfycrat]

Unfortunately it is almost impossible to copyright a recipe, all you have to do is change one ingredient and it is a different recipe. Cooks and Chefs have been dealing with this for years, not only in cookbooks but in individual restaurants. A Chef comes up with a unique restaurant offering and other restaurants copy it. It has always be going on. And I do not think many chefs who publish recipes puts out the exact ingredients he uses in his own restaurants. Everyone has his secrets.
The thing that makes this unique to me is that she is obviously not a chef or unique cook, does not claim these are family recipes handed down for generations etc. But even with that from what I know about recipes and cookbooks, there is no legal remedy - otherwise the first person who made a brownie could say no one else can make brownies or produce recipes for them, for example.

[yossarrian]

I've been a exec. chef for a long time. I was using pureed veggies in my kids meals 25 years ago. It's nothing new. Mothers have been doing this forever. These seinfelds are just a sleazy couple...f­rom trying to screw the agent who brokered their house deal to this mess. This jerry slime did a gig a PAC in NJ last year. Every one i saw leaving that venue said the guy sucked, ripoff, unfunny and wanted their money back. Larry David, as we have seen, is the real talent and was even for the JS show. So what we have is a washed up hack comedian and his insufferalbe slut wife. Maybe they will just disappear after his stupid movie busts.

[CammyV]

Why do I have a problem picturing the wife of one of the wealthiest entertainers in the free world pureeing squash, and preparing mac and cheese for Jerry. Perhaps the chef was pureeing, but I doubt they eat mac and cheese like us po'folk.

[Libsrule]

THAT was the first thing I thought of as well. I've seen a picture of his house and if we are to believe she does the cooking then we are to believe they live in a little three bedroom shack at the edge of town.

The house was bigger than the entire block I live on and the grounds were bigger than the town where I live.

It looked like something out of the days of Robber Barons back at the turn of the 19th Century.

[Meah]

What a bunch of meanness. I saw Jessica Seinfeld on Oprah and she was great. She has recipes which she interchanges multiple vegetables in many dishes. She was very sweet and nice and her primary interest was to get her own children to eat properly. She even put all kinds of veggies in brownies. The point was to have children eat properly, and they demonstrated that these children would eat all kinds of vegetables. I do not think she plagerized. And I don't think unless somebody who wrote a book who said their recipes were just the same, should people judge her unfairly.

[bajanbeauty]

(Another stay at home with nothing better to do than watch Oprah. Enough said.) Suggestion: Go back to school and learn how to spell. It'll be a more productive way to spend your time.

[cplKlyde]

Well we know she's an adulterer so plagerism wouldn't be out of the question.

[ViscountMontie]

Down the well!!!

[Bulbul]

Another story of greed and another loss of innocence. Sad, another wife hungry for something, tries to make trouble for the husband. Same thing happens in reverse order also !
Now, Oprah will be on watch list. The humiliation of another auther who lied, is well known. Difference between the two is, this lady`s husband is Seinfield. What would Oprah do ?

[[e-mail]]

I can’t believe anyone is surprised. This is a woman who cheated on her husband before they had time to open all their wedding presents, once she met someone with an even bigger bank account. Yes, she’s a plagiarist, but that’s not as bad as being a gold-digger and a whore.

[kellygrrrl]

You're right, she is all of those things and has proven exactly how low class she is several times.
I disagree, though, on your final assessment. I think the plagiarist is worse than the gold-digger.
(I mean, at least the "digee" is getting something for his money. The plagered gets nothing unless they sue)

[jbgnyc]

As an writer/author it's hard to criticize anyone who gets Americans to read anything set between two hard covers. However, I watched that show and Oprah's gushing oohhing and aaahing made me want to barf. ((Oprah, in the show previews, kept screaming, "This is life altering!!!!!!) Come on. Putting zucchini in cake???My mother did it for years! While plagerism is serious when done by anyone, it's particularly odious when the participant (I won't call Jessica Seinfeld an author)is super rich and married to a huge celebrity. Is the money going to charity? Is she planning to donate all these veggie concoctions to local public schools? How willing is she to provide meals to local soup kitchens that are loaded with underfed adults and children?

Not likely. Get over it, folks, We are in the midst of another Gilded Age. Being super rich comes with no shame, no humility attached. Good grief, Jessica Moneybags sends Oprah Goldpockets 21 pairs of designer shoes to say "Thanks" for millions of dollars of free publicity. Where is the outrage???