At one point, Barbara Walters inevitably brings up the small matter of the other cookbook on the same topic released several months earlier: Jessica writes off her competitor's concerns as merely an effort to "look for cracks" in someone else's success (sharing the same highly specific premise and 15 identical recipes, presumably, amounting to a sizable fissure). Still, she stops short of echoing her husband's outright dismissal of the author as a stalker crackpot with possible ties to the Manson Family, offering up some guarded sympathy for the other woman before Mothers Against Round-Earthers celebrity spokeswoman Sherri Shepherd jumps in to save the floundering guest with a compassionate, "You were just trying to get your kids to eat some vegetables!"

• The View

1. Bee Movie - $26 million
Jerry Seinfeld has performed so many acts of promotional heroism (such as staring into the cold, dead eyes of the world's worst-prepared interviewer and emerging with his sanity intact) in trying to raise the public's awareness of Bee Movie that we'd almost forgotten the daring stunt that kicked off his journey: that death-defying high-wire act at Cannes that easily could have ended in tragedy for either the comedian or his studio stunt-mogul had their ziplines snapped or harnesses failed, sending them to a grisly—but well-publicized—demise in front of thousands of international movie fans on that resort-town beach. After the jump, relive the historic Flight Of The World's Richest Bumblebee:

2. American Gangster - $24.319 million
While former Harlem drug kingpin Nicky Barnes thought Cuba Gooding Jr. did the best he could with an underwritten part, he still had enough issues with his portrayal as a too-minor character in American Gangster that he decided to phone in some complaints from an undisclosed location in the witness protection program. Barnes did, however, refrain from griping that superproducer Brian Grazer couldn't convince Universal to put up the money to get Don Cheadle for the supporting role, greatly increasing the chances of an Oscar nomination.

3. Fred Claus - $19.225 million
What happened? Reimagining a four-year old Christmastime blockbuster with a watered-down, family friendly Vince Vaughn seemed like such a no-brainer for the holiday season. Perhaps there are only so many "normal-sized person having difficulty sleeping in a tiny elf-bed" jokes the moviegoing public will pay to see.

4. Lions For Lambs - $6.71 million
We're willing to hold off asking the uncomfortable question of whether or not Tom Cruise still qualifies as a movie star until the release of Valkyrie, as the extent of the audience's willingness to embrace the actor while borrowing Hitler's haircut seems like it will provide a more accurate indication of his box office viability than watching him play smarmy in a talky political drama.

8. P2 - $2.20 million
Virtually all of the garage-bound horror flick's box office take came from within the Los Angeles city limits, where audiences were eager to relive the blood-chilling fear they'll die in the cars that they experience each time they're stranded inside The Grove's Parking Structure of the Damned following an ill-considered weekend-night trip to the multiplex.

• Weekend Box Office November 8-4, 2007 [Box Office Mojo]

Trump-groping couch favorite Andy Dick made an appearance, too, and while he could have easily justified going along with the theme by saying he came as the Honey Nut Cheerios spokesinsect, he explained the outfit had nothing to do with the masquerading holiday, and instead was a shameless, Seinfeldian promotion of his own upcoming, bee-themed movie—the heartwarming story of an addict bee who likes to get hopped up on near-lethal quantities of nectar, then proceed to tongue celebrity wasps of either sex while attempting to fly up the pants of anything that moves. Enjoy all the filthy, drone-on-drone stinger talk in the clip above.

• Jimmy Kimmel Live

Despite Letterman's best, half-assed efforts at playing Seinfeld's advocate, we think his fidgety body language and involuntarily groans (particularly after the part of the bit in which Seinfeld accuses the author of being a potential serial killer) tell us everything we need to know about whose side he takes on this matter. It almost made you long for someone to change the topic to something a little less awkward, such as all the wonderful voice-work Afro-American comedian Chris Rock did in Bee Movie.

• Late Show with David Letterman

To celebrate the box office milestone, all Paramount/DreamWorks employees were informed via exuberant e-mail from Brad Grey that an ice cream social "celebrating past and future blockbuster successes" would be held outside the Sherry Lansing Theater. Lucky raffle-number holders will be invited to coat their naked bodies in honey and roll around in a pile of $100 bills—a nod, or course, to their next great hope, Bee Movie—with whatever ends up sticking theirs to keep.

• transformersmovie.com

Karen Baker, director of the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, says she has trouble understanding why Seinfeld would make such a joke, particularly in the context of a film for children. "It surprised me, frankly, because I've always been a Jerry Seinfeld fan," she says. "With what I hear about every single day, I don't find anything at all funny about rape, and I don't like it being made light of. I understand he's a comedian and he's inclined to find humor in everything, but it was offensive."

Margaret Mikkelsen, the executive director of Students Active For Ending Rape, had a similar reaction. "I've always been a fan of Jerry Seinfeld, but I'm not a fan of rape jokes, whoever's telling them," she says. "Working in the anti-violence field, we get accused of not having a sense of humor. But just because you're a comedian doesn't mean that everything that comes out of your mouth is funny."

Given that this is a family-friendly film, DreamWorks will probably pressure Seinfeld to apologize for the remarks; expect the prompt release of a carefully crafted public statement in which the comedian will explain that while he did briefly spend some time in a giant bee suit at Cannes, he should never have been so presumptuous as to comment on the psychological impact of such a serious crime on the bee community.

• Seinfeld Bombs With Anti-Rape Crowd [Radar]
• Jerry does some hive talkin' [Rush & Molloy]

At 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg strapped himself into a harness, stepped off the eighth story of the Carlton Hotel and, thanks to a special rig, floated down across the Croisette to a jetty on the Carlton Beach. It was all part of the dry run for a stunt performed Thursday for the benefit of the international media, which witnessed Jerry Seinfeld, in puffy bee suit, fly across the main drag in Cannes to promote his DreamWorks animated film "Bee Movie," which Paramount Pictures will release Nov. 2 in the U.S.

As he floated gracefully from the roof of the Carlton in the dark of that very early morning, Katzenberg allowed himself a moment to imagine what it would be like if he, not Seinfeld, flew above the assembled throng of worshipful movie fans later that day, accepting their shouted, "You're the man, Jeff! No one runs an animation studio like you!" praise with an appreciative wave of his hand. His reverie, however, was cut short as he alighted on the pier and overheard one of the safety technicians mention to an associate, "Glad he's safe. Geffen said that if the line snapped we should just let his body drift away into the ocean so that it wouldn't distract from the Shrek opening, and that might have been a little annoying. We don't have another bee suit."

[Photo: Getty Images]

• Lots of buzz keeps Katzenberg aflutter [THR]
• Previously: Seinfeld Survives 'Bee Movie' Publicity Stunt [Defamer]

Another photo follows after the jump, showing what could have been the final moment of the brave star's life:

[Photos: Getty Images]

• Cannes abuzz over Seinfeld's `Bee Movie' [AP]