Food Fight! The Case of the Look-Alike Kids' Recipes

Hey, I thought of avocado puree in chocolate pudding , not you! No, I came up with white beans in chocolate chip cookies -- and you stole my spinach brownies!

A simmering dispute between a cookbook author and Jerry Seinfeld's wife is now headed to court, with nasty accusations of idea-stealing and celebrity-stalking. "Jerry Seinfeld is an enormously wealthy and well-known comedian, and Jessica Seinfeld is his wife, but that does not give them license to slander and plagiarize," says the suit, filed Monday in New York.

Author Missy Chase Lapine states that "The Sneaky Chef" (about hiding healthy veggies in kids' food) was released last April to good reviews. Six months later, Jessica Seinfeld's "Deceptively Delicious" (hiding healthy veggies . . . yada yada) was published by HarperCollins, which had rejected Lapine's proposal twice, and it shot to the bestseller lists.

Bloggers quickly noticed similarities, and the lawsuit, obtained by the Web site the Smoking Gun, claims copycat design, phrasing and recipes, with identical vegetable purees in dishes.

Adding insult to injury, Lapine alleges, the comedian attempted to deflect accusations of plagiarism by falsely saying the books had come out at the same time and by calling her "wacko" and "hysterical" during an appearance on David Letterman's show. "She's a three-name woman, which concerns me," Seinfeld said, citing assassins Mark David Chapman and James Earl Ray. On E! News, he jabbed: "She thinks she invented vegetables. And she's accusing my wife of stealing her mashed-up carrots."

Seinfeld lawyer Richard Menaker said Lapine's claims are unfounded and his client is "entitled" to his late-night jabs, reports the Associated Press. "Even though Jerry Seinfeld is a public figure, he doesn't lose his right to free speech because of that."

Finally Clicking (Sort Of) In the Granite State

Enough about Hillary: How'd things work out in New Hampshire for D.C.'s other It Girl -- yoga-teacher-by-day, celebrity-stalker-by-night Liz Glover? Some weeks ago, we told you about her charming habit of asking VIPs to pose with her for a picture snapped by her pink-and-green plastic Barbie Polaroid -- a great conversation-starter, it seems, with New York and Los Angeles types, but somehow a skunk-at-the-garden-party moment for high-powered Washingtonians. (Tim Russert shrank from her in horror at a "Meet the Press" gala.)

But on assignment in the Granite State as a videorazza for the political blog Wonkette, Glover's had much better luck with the same sort of folks who cold-shoulder her here, scoring cute pix with Bill Kristol, Chris Matthews and Sean Hannity. What gives?

"There are a lot of people around asking to have their pictures taken with them," she told us. "Maybe they think I might be a voter." You know, just one of those earnest heartland types toting a pink-and-green plastic Barbie Polaroid.

Glover, the owner of Bikram Yoga Capitol Hill, had less luck with the candidates, getting closeups only with Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul -- the latter one of the most viewed items on Wonkette this week, for some reason.

This Just In . . .

* It's always something! Britney Spears's white Mercedes was impounded Monday night after she got a flat tire and left the car in the middle of Sunset Boulevard. She got a lift home from -- who else? -- a paparazzo following her.

* Wesley Snipes's tax-evasion trial will proceed as scheduled next week in Ocala, Fla. A federal judge denied Snipes's effort to move the proceeding to New York or Orlando, where Snipes owns homes.

Love, Etc.

* Divorcing: Writer Elizabeth Drew, 72, and her computer-tech husband David Felton, 54, after a three-year marriage. Twice-widowed Drew -- one of the first women to break into the top ranks of brand-name political journalists and then into TV punditry -- met Felton in 2003 when he repaired her crashed Macintosh. "Sadly, it didn't work out," she told us yesterday.