Jerry Seinfeld Fights Back At Defamation Suit

NEW YORK — Jerry Seinfeld claims a cookbook author is cooking up some fancy semantics by calling him an actor rather than a comedian to minimize the humor in statements she says defamed her.

Lawyers for Seinfeld say Missy Chase Lapine's lawyers resorted to the switch in words to describe Seinfeld when several weeks ago they filed a rewritten version of her lawsuit against him and his wife in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

"Jerry Seinfeld is an enormously wealthy and well-known actor," Lapine's revised lawsuit said. The original had called him a comedian.

Lapine, the author of "The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids' Favorite Meals," accused Seinfeld's wife, Jessica Seinfeld, of plagiarizing her cookbook when in October she published her own, titled: "Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food."

During an appearance on CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman," Jerry Seinfeld said Lapine was accusing his wife of "vegetable plagiarism" and compared her to the three-name killers of John Lennon and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

"If you read history, many of the three-name people do become assassins," Seinfeld said. "Mark David Chapman. And you know, James Earl Ray. So that's my concern."

His lawyers said in court papers filed late Tuesday: "No reasonable viewer could have thought that Seinfeld really meant that Lapine ... might become an `assassin' simply because she has three names."

Lapine's lawyers have said Seinfeld, best known for the sitcom "Seinfeld," used the Letterman appearance to begin a "malicious, premeditated and knowingly false and defamatory attack" on her.

"The issues of law will be decided by the court, and we are confident of the outcome," Lapine lawyer Howard B. Miller said Wednesday.

Seinfeld's lawyers asked a judge to toss out the lawsuit on First Amendment grounds.

In separate court papers, lawyers for Jessica Seinfeld accused Lapine of falsely claiming she invented the idea of hiding fruits and vegetables in children's meals when "countless prior works utilized this very same unprotectable idea," including a 1971 book. They called the lawsuit "opportunistic."

Comments

[jukesgrrl]

Jerry, just write the damn check. You're one of the richest people in show business and there's no way your wife made up all those recipes.

[igmond50]

Class envy at its best!

[sufi66]

Don't you see he's defending the little woman. What will the servants say if he doesn't!

[racom]

Are you ready to confirm that 'Missy Chase Lapine' actually made up all her recipes or did she steal from other books? About 'just write the damn check', weren't you raised to know better? Do you really believe you should reward bad conduct? Sure hope you don't teach this to your children!!!

[BeSpoke]

Saint Jessica. Wait....isn't she the one that ran out on her husband (first one) right after the honeymoon? Why SAINT JESSICA wouldn't do anything..........NOT PURE........ Why, GOOD (K)night JERRY. People used to think that Jerry was so-o funny ("...I love Seinfeld---oh, not the monolgue part--the ACTOR part...."). E,r.....until they realized that the funny, FUNNY comedian was LARRY DAVID.

[FoundingMothers]

Jerry should just pay up. I saw the Letterman show and he appeared to come on for the sole purpose of trashing Lupine. It was not in the least bit funny and I was uncomfortable just watching it . It looked like Letterman was uncomfortable too. It was nothing but bullying behavior.
Jerry should also make a large contribution to a charity of Letterman's choice - in Letterman's name. I was sorry to see Letterman used like this.
Have not been able to watch anything "Seinfeld" since that show. What a jerk.

[rainey]

The bottom line is that whoever she is would not have gotten the book deal if she hadn't married Seinfeld. And she wouldn't have had the material if she hadn't stolen it from the original author, Lapine.

Aren't the Seinfelds rich enough without stealing from other people?

[RPLinNYC]

Exactly.

[abromber]

And you know this how?

[gernger]

I don't understand how it defames him to be called an actor, when his major successes were both as a comedy writer and as an actor. I don't know anyone who knew who he was before his show went on the air.

[fetacheese]

um.....you completely misunderstood. re-read the first paragraph over again and hopefully that will lift the confusion cloud!

[Kenji]

Yeah, only people who watched Johnny Carson for ten years or more knew him, I guess. The point, I'm assuming, is that calling him an actor is intended to distract people from the fact that comedians make jokes, and that this was one. Clear enough yet?

[thebirdstheword]

really, then i guess michael richards is a comedian, too?

[CKieffer]

Jokes are meant to be funny. Stealing someone else's work; getting caught and then calling that person you stole from names on national television is no where near "funny". It was in bad taste and he should have played it smart and kept his mouth shut on this one topic.

[the964kid]

Sucks to be famous. This Lapine woman sounds like a nut, her book must have been a real loser, since no one who was making any real money would've had to resort to this embarrassing course of action.

Wait - what? She just filed a lawsuit against me too??!

[Theda]

Dear "the964kid,"
Are you Jerry in disguise?! It won't be the first time you've been here.
The truth is, the recipes in "your wife's" book were taken from Lapine's book almost verbatim. Both books are practically one and the same.
Lapine isn't a nut. She's telling the truth. Her book was published first.
Obviously Jessica's ghost writers stole Lapine's recipes, but Jessica can't admit she had a ghostwriter!
Remember how Oprah humiliated James Frey on national TV when she learned that his memoirs were fictionalized?
Well, she won't be scolding Jessica in public.
Oprah got 20 pairs of designer shoes from Jessica.

[Charity]

go over to oprah's website - seinfeld's wife has a link there. lots are at stake here for jessica and her husband.

and i too saw seinfeld on letterman and was appalled by his statements.

[Pippilangstrumpf]

Seinfeld and wife, Oprah...they all make my stomach turn.

Oprah pouncing on James Frey for 'lying' is ridiculous when you think of the fact that very single month, on the cover of her magazine is a photograph of her that where she is made up, styled, airbrushed and photoshopped til she no longer the person who gets out of bed every morning.

Who's the bigger liar?

Money does strange things to peoples' brains.

[Politiking]

Seinfeld is obnoxiouly unfunny. He knew what he was doing when he spoke about Missy Lapine on David Letterman; he obviously wanted to minimize her relevance so his wife couldn't be labeled "plagiarizer." I hope the judge doesn't throw out the suit. With all his fame and fortune, which he and his wife use to promote the plagiarized cook book, he should at least apologize to Ms. Lapine for what he said about her. Ms. Lapine has done nothing wrong but to author a cookbook his wife allegedly took her ideas from. Mrs. Seinfeld should have at least credited her instead of counter suing her.

[racom]

Just what this country needs, more ridiculous, frivolous law suits.

[thebirdstheword]

i'm sure if jerry thought ms. lapine stole one of his "comedic" bits, he'd sue her in a heartbeat.

if you can really call "what about airline food..." comedy.

[sufi66]

You would be the first to file suit if you thought you were being cheated out of something. If it's "frivolous" then the case will be thrown out.

[abromber]

And if it turns out Lapine took her ideas from other cookbooks or chefs, or even just some ordinary Moms, will you consider her a plagiarizer? Will you admit that she was "obviously" just trying to sue Seinfeld for free publicity? Will you demand that she apologize to the Seinfelds?

"Taking ideas" from others is not copyright infringement, because ideas are not protected by copyright. The recipes are protected, but only if they represent her original work, not the work of others that she borrowed or adapted, and only if Seinfeld copied them. If Seinfeld wrote them herself (or hired somebody to write them for her) and they turn out to be verbatim identical to the recipes in Lapine's book, there is no infringement. You could look it up.

I'm guessing the whole thing is a charade and they are both laughing as sales of their books go higher and higher. Two years from now they will announce a settlement, with the terms undisclosed of course.

[gluvox12]

Seinfeld, McCain - Somebody should just go ahead and write "The Trophy Wife CookbooK" (copyright me)

[Aslanspal]

You think she's a Trophy Wife? more like I married my Mother

[happycat]

That made me laugh!

[racom]

You married your mother, I'm shocked.

[racom]

Maybe the 'three name' person really means 'dipstick'!!!

[thebirdstheword]

obviously, you went to the jerry seinfeld school of comedy.

[racom]

Right, he's rich, lets find some reason, any reason, to sue. The thoughtless hysterical comments on this issue are enough to drive any progressive away. Read the stupidity expressed on this page and put some reason to it. Does anyone care that it will go to court for a decision? Hell no, lets hang him now. Sounds like a vigilante mob run amuck!!!