Jessica Seinfeld Wins Cookbook Copycat Case

Would you really trust Miss Piggy in your kitchen?

(NEWSER) - They call them the “Real Housewives,” but does that actually mean they know how to cook? Apparently at least one of them thinks she does: Teresa Giudice, whose Skinny Italian proves that “all you have to these days to be considered an authority on cooking is flip over tables when angry,” writes Kim Conte for Café Mom . Other misguided celebrity "cooks": More»

Need a good beach (or bathroom) read? Try these

(NEWSER) - To understand how women have defined “celebrity” over the past century, you have to read these 20 biographies. Or maybe, writes Tracie Egan Morrissey for Jezebel , you’re just looking for a trashy bathroom read. That works, too:

• No Lifeguard on Duty, Janice Dickinson: The supermodel is “deliciously TMI about everything: when she tried to trick Sylvester Stallone into thinking he was the father of her baby when he wasn't; getting totally fucked up on coke and booze at Stephanie Seymour's bachelorette party; describing—in detail—Liam Neeson's penis size.”
• Liz, C. David Heymann: “Focuses mostly on the trashier aspects of Elizabeth Taylor’s life and career—like the pills, the booze, the marriages, and the fluctuating weight—but is mostly interesting for its account of all of her ‘firsts’ as a celebrity woman.”

17-year-old writer says there's no such thing as originality

(NEWSER) - The 17-year-old author of a critically acclaimed novel about sex and drugs in Berlin's techno scene is drawing fire for allegedly copying large chunks of a blogger's work. The blogger, who goes by Airen, says author Helene Hegemann lifted "entire passages" from his book, Strobo, for her work, Axolotl Roadkill. Hegemann, the daughter of a German theater professor, doesn't deny it. Her rep calls it "intertextual mixing." Her critics call it cheating. More»

The problem, says a critic: 'They're about yesterday's yearning'

(NEWSER) - Julia Keller is of two minds about year-end "best of" lists—which are even more numerous and annoying than usual in this, the final year of the decade. She admits to reading them, "and I further confess that I sometimes enjoy arguing silently with them." But "the infamous, diabolical, excruciating yet unavoidable tradition" get her down for a curious reason: As a professional critic, their retrospective nature makes her miss "the passion of the nervous, risky, itchy present." More»

The rapper talks to Oprah's magazine about books that inspire him

(NEWSER) - Jay-Z has gone from rapper to mogul, and he shares some of the books that helped him along the way with O magazine:

• The Seat of the Soul, by Gary Zukav: "There are two books that I absolutely live my life by. This is one of them. I believe in karma and doing the right thing even if it may not advance you as far as you want."