Undeterred by Jerry Seinfeld identifying her as a potential assassin because of her three names, cookbook author Missy Chase Lapine is expanding her defamation lawsuit against the Seinfelds to also include Jessica Seinfeld's publisher HarperCollins. Both Lapine's book, The Sneaky Chef, and the book she accuses of ripping it off, Deceptively Delicious, became bestsellers, but—surprise!—the author with the famous husband who also landed a coveted appearance on Oprah has sold many more copies of her book.

The book world's flukiest bestselling author, Lauren Weisberger, whose stint picking up Anna Wintour's lattes and dry-cleaning led to the money-making juggernaut The Devil Wears Prada, has started the promotional blitz for her latest novel, Chasing Harry Winston. (We'd describe the plot, except it would make us lose the will to live.) Weisberger took some time out before beginning her publicity tour to chat with the Telegraph and generously provided the lowdown on how she spends her weekends in Tribeca—going to the movies, eating at restaurants, and (gasp) shopping—while simultaneously demonstrating that she's every bit as inane and unoriginal as her fictional creations. Her husband "is totally gorgeous," the shoe department at Saks is "a little bit of heaven on earth," and "it's interesting that of all the friends I went to college with none has children yet." Like, totally! Oh, and she and her husband are big fans of an obscure, little television program you may have heard of called "American Idol." So much fun! "We love Simon Cowell and every single word that comes out of his mouth." Wish we could say the same for you, Lauren.

It was probably inevitable: A "photogenic" twenty-something has written a chick-lit novel about the crazy exploits of summer sharers in the Hamptons. Jasmin Rosemberg, who used to chronicle her share house experiences for the New York Post, will publish How The Other Half Hamptons today, a book filled with "drunken escapades, hot tub hookups, hideous hangovers, and juvenile mischief." Her editor says it's "the perfect summer read." Oh, these canny publishers and their brilliantly inventive marketing slogans. It almost makes you wonder why no one reads anymore!

So there's a memoir out about some chick's horrible childhood, so it goes without saying why it's in the news: Yes, she's being accused of lies and fraud. New School MFA Rachel Sontag's House Rules describes the emotional abuse she suffered at the hands of her father, who has amped up the PR she's already received (from people like Rosie O'Donnell) by posting a lengthy, aggressive screed on Amazon, in which he denounces his daughter as a disturbed individual guilty of deceit, duplicity and fabrication. What a heartwarming story just in time for Father's Day. Sontag's editors at HarperCollins must be relieved that their author, whose memoir was published a couple of months ago, is finally getting publicly trashed—otherwise the poor thing might have sunk without a trace, cleavageriffic author shot or not!

The truth about HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman's abrupt departure from her job has now been established, sort of. While it's obvious that News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch fired her—not least because heir-in-waiting Brian Murray was offered Friedman's job two days before she knew anything about it—no one who's willing to speak knows why the unscrupulous Aussie cut loose a woman who, by all accounts, had done extremely well for the company and was widely admired by her publishing cohorts. And so the normally dry old book industry is consumed with soap opera-ish emotion and intrigue: Agent Robert Gottlieb calls the decision "a dreadful mistake...What can be in the minds of these people, losing somebody that valuable, is simply beyond my comprehension," while a HarperCollins exec says that they'd "all be helped emotionally if we had a better sense of why this happened." Bring in the trauma counselors!

One of the rumors sparked by the ousting of HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman was that the book publisher's profits were down; perhaps that's why they're now bothering to sue Victoria Gotti to get back a $70,000 advance paid in 2005. The organized crime scion-slash-reality TV star had signed a contract with erstwhile HarperCollins editor Judith Regan to write two books, including a memoir about her father, "Teflon" don John Gotti. According to the suit filed, two unacceptable outlines were rejected, but Gotti's agent says she chose to cancel the contract when Regan left the company, and will pay back the money when she gets a deal with another publisher. Victoria must be relieved to be finally upholding the family tradition with a day in court, even if spending your book advance on spray-tans and hair extensions isn't quite murder, extortion and racketeering.

Gossip Girl author Cecily von Ziegesar has sold a novel to Hyperion in a deal said to be in the seven figures. Cum Laude, repped by Suzanne Gluck, is for adults, although judging from the description—"a murder story involving a preppy girl from Greenwich, CT, a hippie from the city, a jock-turned-artist from the suburbs, and a brother-sister duo"—it probably won't be too challenging for fans of Blair, Serena and co. [Observer]