<![CDATA[Jezebel: missy chase lapine]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/jezebel.com.png <![CDATA[Jezebel: missy chase lapine]]> http://jezebel.com/tag/missychaselapine http://jezebel.com/tag/missychaselapine <![CDATA[ The Sneaky Chef author Missy Chase Lapine,...]]> The Sneaky Chef author Missy Chase Lapine, hot on the heels of having just sued Jessica Seinfeld over the striking similarities between her own book and Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious, has just inked a deal to do yet another installation in her series. Lapine's latest book is to feature even more ways to hide fruits and vegetables in your children's food. Seriously, how many tomes does this warrant? How many ways could there possibly be to trick your kids? When we were kids there was only one way to eat veggies: Steamed plain, fresh on our plates, and with lots of hemming and hawing. [Publisher's Weekly]

]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=346169&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[ Jessica Seinfeld was on the The View today,...]]> Jessica Seinfeld was on the The View today, and in between bites of "deceptively delicious" food, Barbara Walters asked Seinfeld to elaborate a little on the scandal surrounding her cookbook Deceptively Delicious. Jessica Seinfeld: "I can understand why [Missy Chase Lapine, author of The Sneaky Chef] would've been upset. When you have a huge success, people tend to look for the cracks, anything that would break you down a little bit... She did a book with a similar topic earlier, and it must have been hard for her to see how quickly my book took off... Never as a person would I do something like what I was accused of doing [plagarism]. I mean, I really didn't need to do this book." Barbara Walters: "Well, this isn't exactly a family that would have needed this to feed themselves." Jessica Seinfeld: "Well, yeah". [The View]

]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=324454&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[ Writer Mimi Sheraton (the first female chief...]]> Writer Mimi Sheraton (the first female chief food critic at The New York Times) has taken on Jessica Seinfeld's bestselling book Deceptively Delicious. Says Sheraton of the controversy on the similarities between Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious and Missy Chase Lapine's The Sneaky Chef: "I say: a plague on both their houses. Both propose a culinary scheme that is, basically, totally stupid, to say nothing of dishonest... With the dangerous rise of childhood obesity and diabetes, do we really want to encourage the eating of sugars and starches... As to the nutritional worth of such cooked and recooked vegetables, in miniscule amounts, [NYU nutrition expert Dr. Marion Nestle] first chuckled wildly and then answered, 'All you can do is laugh.'" Welcome to the club! [Slate]

]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=315056&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Jessica Seinfeld's "I Never Read That Book" Defense Smells A Little Fishy]]> What a difference a weekend makes. Missy Chase Lapine, the author whose April 2007 book The Sneaky Chef may or may not have influenced Jessica Seinfeld's instant bestseller Deceptively Delicious, has gone from feeling "uncomfortable" about the uncanny similarities between the two titles to "concerned and troubled." And Ms. Lapine evidently embarked on a little comparison shopping in the days since she and her publisher told both the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal that they were unwilling to "accuse anyone of anything." "There are at least 15 of my recipes that ended up in her book," this morning's USA Today quotes Ms. Lapine as saying, adding that intent is difficult to prove with regards to recipe-theft: "If you change one ingredient, you're safe."



Although Ms. Lapine also (rightfully) questions Oprah Winfrey's wholesale endorsement of Ms. Seinfeld's book — "I'm surprised that on the Oprah show this was being touted as an entirely new technique pioneered by Ms. Seinfeld" — why isn't she (or anyone else, for that matter) questioning Seinfeld's excuse that she has never "seen or read this other book"? Sure, maybe she never literally held it in her well-manicured hands, but as every author or agent of nonfiction knows, before you prepare a proposal to present to editors, you research the marketplace to see if the concept has been executed before, and if so, how. It's called "Competing Titles", and it's part of Nonfiction Publishing 101, up there with "Write A Sample Chapter" and "Describe Your Intended Audience". And if there is a competing title that sounds a lot like yours? At the very least, you take look at it. Maybe you even acknowledge it! Also, are we to believe that, following her epicurean epiphany, Ms. Seinfeld never typed in the words "puree" "kids" and "eating" and "food" into Google? Or that once she signed with hot young literary agent Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, the importance of researching competing titles was never brought up? Yeah, it's about as believable a scenario as a filthy rich, fashion-obsessed, oft-photographed socialite who does all of her family's cooking.

Cookbook Author Says Seinfeld Book Deceptively Similar [USA Today]
Earlier: Jessica Seinfeld: The New James Frey? Or Kaavya Viswanathan?
Related: Jessica Seinfeld's Recipes Stir Up Plagiarism Accusations

]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=313324&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Jessica Seinfeld: The New James Frey? Or Kaavya Viswanathan?]]> 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
Want A Better Job? Stop Working Right Now And Get Your Nails Did

]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=312836&view=rss&microfeed=true