Lawsuit against Seinfelds

Missy Chase Lapine, the author of "The Sneaky Chef," a cookbook whose recipes camouflage puréed vegetables and fruits in comfort food for children, sued Jessica and Jerry Seinfeld on Monday, charging copyright infringement and defamation. Lapine accuses Jessica Seinfeld of "brazen plagiarism." Jessica Seinfeld wrote a cookbook, "Deceptively Delicious," that also employs hidden puréed vegetables in its recipes for children. In the complaint, she also accuses comedian Jerry Seinfeld of "malicious defamation" for insinuating, among other things, that she was a "wacko" in comments he made on "Late Show With David Letterman" in the fall.

Bored of education

A sticky situation

A 10-year-old Mexican boy dreaded returning to school after Christmas break so much that he glued his hand to his bed. Sandra Palacios spent nearly two hours Monday morning trying to free her son Diego's hand with water, oil and nail-polish remover before calling authorities, police chief Jorge Camacho told The Associated Press from outside the northern city of Monterrey. "I didn't want to go to school because vacation was so much fun," Reforma newspaper quoted the boy as saying. Diego's hand was fine, and paramedics managed to unstick him in time for class.

Awards

Critics' Choice

Joel and Ethan Coen's western noir "No Country for Old Men" was the big winner Monday at the 13th annual Critics' Choice Awards at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. The film picked up awards for best film of 2007, best director for the Coen brothers and best supporting actor for Javier Bardem. Daniel Day-Lewis was chosen best actor for "There Will Be Blood," Julie Christie best actress for "Away From Here" and Amy Ryan best supporting actress for "Gone Baby Gone."

Passages

Longtime Capitol Records talent scout and producer Ken Nelson, 96, whose work with Buck Owens and Merle Haggard took them to the top ranks of country-music stardom in the 1960s and helped define the genre's twangy "Bakersfield sound," died Sunday of natural causes at his home in Somis, Calif.

Rabbi Shmuel Berenbaum, 87, a Talmudic scholar who led a yeshiva in Brooklyn, N.Y., for more than 50 years after fleeing Nazi-occupied Poland and briefly taking refuge in Shanghai, China, died Sunday of cancer in New York.

Today in History

1798: The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was declared in effect by President John Adams nearly three years after its ratification by the states; it prohibited a citizen of one state from suing another state in federal court.

1965: The Star of India and other stolen gems were returned to the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

1987: For the first time, the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 2,000, ending the day at 2,002.25.

1998: Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was sentenced in New York to life imprisonment.

Today's Birthdays

Comedian Soupy Sales, 82. Broadcast journalist Sander Vanocur, 80. CBS newsman Charles Osgood, 75. Singer Shirley Bassey, 71. Game-show host Bob Eubanks, 70. Actress Yvette Mimieux, 66. Physicist Stephen Hawking, 66. Rock singer David Bowie, 61. Actress Harriet Sansom Harris, 53. Singer R. Kelly, 41. Reggae singer Sean Paul, 35. Actress Gaby Hoffman, 26.

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