No damages for you!
A Manhattan judge has thrown out a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Jerry Seinfeld that charged he’d defamed his wife’s cookbook rival during an appearance on “The Late Show with David Letterman.”
Missy Chase Lapine – who’d charged that Seinfeld’s wife Jessica had ripped off her kids’ cookbook idea – said Seinfeld’s references to her as a “wacko,” “stalker” and a “nut job” conveyed an “unmistakable message” that she was off her rocker.
In a ruling released today, Justice Marcy Friedman fried Lapine’s suit, saying Seinfeld was clearly expressing his opinion, not facts.
The “court finds it inconceivable that a reasonable viewer would have believed that Seinfeld’s statements were conveying facts about Lapine,” Friedman wrote, noting that many of a Lapine’s claims were overdone.
She noted that one of Lapine’s complaints was that Seinfeld had called her a would-be assassin – but a transcript of the show revealed that wasn’t quite what he said.
“She’s a three-named woman, that’s what concerns me. She has three names. And if you read history, many of the three-named people do become assassins,” said Seinfeld, who never actually mentioned Lapine’s name on the show.
“Plainly, no viewer could have regarded this statement as an accusation that plaintiff was a would-be assassin or in any way dangerous,” Friedman wrote.
She also said the context of the jibes had to be considered.
“Seinfeld, a well-known comedian, made the statements in question primarily on the Letterman show, a late-night entertainment program, during a comedic interchange between Seinfeld and Letterman. The interchange was repeatedly punctuated by laughter from the audience,” the judge wrote.
She also found that besides the humorous context, Seinfeld’s statements weren’t defamatory.
“Seinfeld’s statements disparage Lapine’s claims of plagiarism as false or baseless or, more colloquially, wacky. As statements of opinion about the lack of merit of [Lapine’s] claims, they are not actionable,” Friedman wrote.
Lapine sued Jessica Seinfeld over her book “Deceptively Delicious” in Manhattan Federal Court three years ago, charging the author had ripped off the idea for a cookbook about sneaking pureed vegetables into kids’ food from her book, “The Sneaky Chef.”
That case was thrown out, after a judge found the two books were substantially different and that sneaking healthy food into foods children like was hardly a novel idea. Friedman noted that there have been such cookbooks in bookstores since 1971.
Lapine also sued “Deceptively Delicious” publisher HarperCollins in state court, charging they’d taken Lapine’s idea from a book proposal and fed it to Jessica Seinfeld, but Friedman threw those claims out as well, finding there was no evidence that was the case.
“Today’s decision is a complete victory for Jerry – and also a victory for the First Amendment and the right of comedians to tell jokes,” said Seinfeld’s lawyer, Orin Snyder.
“The decision also vindicates HarperCollins and Jessica Seinfeld yet again, confirming what the two different federal courts have already ruled: Jessica independently created her bestselling book, ‘Deceptively Delicious.'”
Harper Collins is owned by News Corp., which also owns The Post.
Lapine might not be through cooking up trouble for the Seinfelds. Her lawyer, Howard Miller, said, “We’re evaluating the options for a possible appeal.”