Jerry Seinfeld was just joking when he compared a woman accusing his wife of plagiarism to the killers of John Lennon and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., his lawyers said.
In a filing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, attorneys for the former sitcom star asked a judge to throw out a lawsuit filed by Missy Chase Lapine against Seinfeld and his wife, the Daily News reported in Tuesday editions.
"Jerry Seinfeld made overstatements of opinion for comic effect," the comedian's lawyers said in the filing.
Lapine is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for copyright and trademark infringement, and made slander and defamation claims.
Lapine, the author of "The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids' Favorite Meals," accused Seinfeld's wife of plagiarizing her cookbook. Jessica Seinfeld's "Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food" was published in October; Lapine's book was published in April.
Lawyers for the Seinfelds dismissed the plagiarism allegations in the court filing, saying, "The idea of sneaking healthy foods into a child's diet is not original to your author."
Lapine also contended in her lawsuit that Jerry Seinfeld, while making a promotional stop on CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman," suggested she was a crackpot by comparing her to the killers of Lennon and King.