More trouble in Oprah-author land! The talk show host's new bestselling BFF, Jessica Seinfeld, is being questioned over her guru guide on healthy eating for kids,Deceptively Delicious. Today's New York Times and Wall Street Journal report that Ms. Seinfeld's book bears an uncanny resemblance to a cookbook already out on the market, The Sneaky Chef. Sneaky Chef author Missy Chase Lapine, who initially struggled to find a publisher for her book (published this past April), tells the Times that she's "uncomfortable [that] those unusual combinations that I thought would brand me as a lunatic showed up [in Seinfeld's book], too." Adds her publisher, Perseus' David Steinberger: "We agree that the books appear to be very similar in many ways."

In addition to similarities between the recipes and cover treatments for both books, the Times reports that that Ms. Seinfeld's publisher, Collins, rejected Ms. Lapine's book proposal because it was "too similar" to another book on its list but agreed to meet with Seinfeld when she submitted her proposal two weeks later "because of her name and her agent: Jennifer Rudolph Walsh of William Morris" (Walsh, as you may remember, was the onetime agent of notorious coed cribber Kaavya Viswanathan):

Ms. Walsh described Ms. Seinfeld as "smart, stunning, and infinitely promotable" in a cover letter.

Ah, yes, the old "basically in order to be successful at anything at all you need to be hot" saw! It's a sad world, and we feel for Ms. Lapine. But seriously, if your genius book idea is about concealing wholesome, substantial nourishment behind the mask of "junk food," can you really be mad when the junk food wins?.

How to Get Junior to Eat His Veggies Turns Out To Be (Too) Common Knowledge [NY Times]
How Another Seinfeld Scored Her Own Big Hit [WSJ]
Earlier:Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious: Kinda Deceptive, Not So Delicious
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