Elisabeth Hasselbeck Sued For Plagiarism Over G-Free Diet Book

BOSTON — Elisabeth Hasselbeck, a co-host of ABC's "The View," has been accused of plagiarism.

A lawsuit in federal court in Massachusetts alleges that Hasselbeck lifted "word for word" content from a book on celiac disease written by a self-published author on Cape Cod.

Hasselbeck's book, "The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide," has appeared over the past month on several best-seller lists.

Author Susan Hassett filed the lawsuit Monday, saying she sent Hasselbeck a copy of her "Living With Celiac Disease" book as a courtesy after the TV celebrity disclosed she had the illness last year.

The lawsuit says Hasselbeck's book reproduces lists of grains containing gluten along with scientific names of the grains.

Hasselbeck's book "includes dozens of paraphrased as well as word for word regurgitations of phrases" from Hassett's book, the lawsuit claims, but it doesn't cite specific examples.

The lawsuit also says the books have a similar organization and chapter format.

Hasselbeck said in a statement that the allegations are baseless and she worked "diligently and tirelessly" on the book and was disappointed by efforts to discredit her work.

Comments

[samaire]

she's a lousy liar

[onedivasinger]

Well, she days repeat word for word what Fox and the other right wing tools tell her to say. Unlike her however, I think people should have their day in court.

[SoccerNana]

Maybe she can get a job with SarahPac. It is obvious they both cannot form two words on their own.

[EngPhD]

LOL! I agree.

[gatogato]

Why doesn't she write a diet book on eating worms? Wasn't that her original claim to fame?

[EngPhD]

LOL! You are too much! But true, right?

[zooboy]

Hasselbeck has never expressed an original thought of her own. Why would I believe she could put together an entire book on her own.

[citizen of the universe]

Has this story been a "Hot Topic" on the show yet? It seems whenever she does or says anything off air it's never mentioned on the show, but all the other ladies "mentions" have been on the show.

[shanmerc]

HuffPost, please follow up on this one. i really want to know how this pans out!

[G-guy]

Sorry. If you've seen both books, the evidence is there.
She had the real authors book, and possibly even read it, too.

Then a little mischievous light bulb went off in Hasselbeck's head.

Sat down, got some paper, and bingo! Author. Who's gonna know?
It's about gluten, after all....not a scrutinized topic.

This is no writer, IMHO. It's more like a paint-by-number deal.

[grdavis1019]

Quite a month for the GOP and its sheep.

[AMC Seattle]

The thing that kills me about this is that Gluten IS a scrutinized subject: scrutinized by serious people and scrutinized for the very real effects is has on people with Celiac disease. But, EH is NOT one of those serious people and the way she handled the book reflects that.
I know she suffers from Celiac, and as a fellow Celiac patient I guess I can empathize with her on that, but what a wasted effort.
I'm inclined to believe she plagarized this book. She's never been forthcoming about the serious effects of gluten on herself...why start now unless there's money to be made?

[G-guy]

Lizzy claims the charges are meritless?
This is a ditzy republican we're talking here. Logic eludes her in vast volume.
Claim to fame? Eating worms, and being 2 faced, and finishing fourth on "Survivor".

This is not a multi-tasker here. Showing up for "The View" is all she can handle.
Making any sense, or showing an iota of intelligence on there, another.

So she writes a book about the same subject as a book sent to her, by the author?
Same info, words and format, with some inaccurate tidbits added, if you've seen it.

She didn't write a book, IMO. It was more like color-by-number.

[Lulu2]

Has Elizabeth Hasselbeck EVER expressed an original thought? She's the reason I often "mute" The View. The idea of her actually collecting data, researching and writing an original book is ludicrous.

[rhondadavis28]

http://abc.go.com/site/contactus.html?lid=ABCCOMGlobalFooter&lpos=CONTACT

I have asked Barbara to comment on this... since Liz slammed Obama on his speaches and not giving credit...

[EngPhD]

I am glad you did. I will too. I almost forgot about how EH bashed President Obama during the presidential campaign over his speeches. Now look at her.

[Futurama]

Here is a video of Elisabeth accusing Barack Obama of plagiarism
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4310860

[PoliticalAmazon]

Is stealing now a Christian value?

[Judith Reppucci]

As a professional writer, I can tell you that the essence of a project is not the words, but the form, the structure, the organization of the material. When I'm hired to write a commercial project, the bulk of my work is comprised of research, and the organization of that research. Susan Hassett obviously spent a great deal of effort putting her information into an organized format appropriate for her audience. Elizabeth Hasselbeck pretty obviously appropriated all that hard work.

[G-guy]

"Good" writers are usually intelligent people.
I say good, because anyone can write a book nowadays,
and then say they are a professional. Right, Judith?

[livestrong]

She gets all of her political views from Sean Hanniety. I can believe she got her recipes from the plaintiff.