Judge Will Decide Fate of Jerry’s Jokes
According to E! Online, Jerry Seinfeld’s attorneys continue to ask a judge to throw out a lawsuit for trademark infringement and slander filed in New York by Missy Chase Lapine against Jerry and his wife, Jessica.
If you are not familiar with this case, here’s what you need to know…
- Lepine’s book, “The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies For Hiding Healthy Foods In Kids’ Favorite Meals,” — a book about how to sneak veggies into kids’ meals — was released in April 2007.
- Jessica Seinfeld’s book, “Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets To Get Your Kids Eating Good Food,” — also about how to sneak veggies into kids’ meals — was released in October 2007.
- On October 8, 2007, Jessica Seinfeld appeared on Oprah to promote her book.
- In response to accusations that his wife had plagiarized Lapine’s recipes, Jerry compared her to the killers of John Lennon and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. while making an appearance on Late Night With David Letterman.
- In the papers seeking dismissal of the lawsuit, attorneys refer to Jerry’s comments as “overstatements of opinion for comic effect” and argue that “no reasonable viewer could have thought that Seinfeld really meant that Lapine…might become an ‘assassin’ simply because she has three names.”
Popsquire’s perspective…
For a statement to constitute defamation (the term that encompasses libel or slander), it must be a statement of fact and not an opinion. That’s why we see Jerry’s attorneys referring to the statement as a “overstatements of opinion for comic effect.”
