Sunday, July 13, 2008

New Bout in Seinfeld Cookbook Battle

Thanks to a rise in Amazon rankings, a revamped lawsuit and an “Oprah” rerun, the debate over “vegetable plagiarism” has entered Round 2.
“Deceptively Delicious,” the cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld (left) whose recipes for concealing puréed vegetables in comfort food for children bore such similarities to another cookbook’s that it inspired a lawsuit from that book’s author, shot to the top of the Amazon best-seller list on Wednesday, nine months after it was published.
The sharp rise in sales caught the eyes of both books’ publishers, who traced it to the rerun on Tuesday of an episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” that featured Ms. Seinfeld. The appearance also subsequently lifted sales of “The Sneaky Chef,” by Missy Chase Lapine, Right, the author who is suing Ms. Seinfeld.
The books, similar in theme, content and appearance, remain inextricably tied to each other. On Amazon, shoppers viewing “Deceptively Delicious” are prodded to order “The Sneaky Chef,” and vice versa.
The full, fascinating story at The New York Times online.

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