PUBLISHING TODAY, like every other entertainment industry, is all about the cult of personality. That's why Lauren Conrad of "The Hills" was able to sell her first attempt at a novel while less photogenic people, who can actually write, spin more compelling yarns in anonymity.

It's why every celeb and pseudo-celeb has a biography or life philosophy on the shelves.

It's why Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the perpetually pregnant co-host of "The View," is the author of "The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide," and not the pretty face who, in years past, would have written the forward for such a book, which would have been penned by a doctor.

Now the doctor writes the forward. Unless he's Dr. Oz.

Because, really, who could know more about celiac disease than a talk-show host?

But acording to a suit filed Monday in Massachusetts, Hasselbeck's take on G-Free may also have been Originality-Free.

Author Susan Hassett alleges that Hasselbeck lifted "word for word" content from her self-published book, "Living With Celiac Disease," which she says she sent to Hasselbeck with a personal note after she told "View"-ers she had the digestive disorder last year.

Hassett said Hasselbeck's book "slavishly reproduces" lists and passages from her own work and includes inaccuracies about celiac disease that can be "misleading and dangerous" for people with the illness.

The suit seeks to block the sale of Hasselbeck's best-selling diet tome and asks that copies of it be withdrawn from distributors and stores.

The Re-Producers

Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick are the proud parents of twin girls delivered by a surrogate mother, publicist Simon Halls said yesterday.

Marion Loretta Elwell Broderick (5 pounds and 11 ounces) and Tabitha Hodge Broderick (6 pounds) were born Monday afternoon at an Ohio hospital.

Hodge and Elwell are family names on Parker's side.

"The babies are doing beautifully and the entire family is over the moon," Halls said in a statement.

According to Hollyscoop.com, the family was at the hospital for the births.

The 'Joy' of winning contests

Few are the people who don't need more joy in their lives.

That's why Tattle is scattering some joy with copies of artist/designer Kathy Davis's new book, "Scatter Joy: Living, Giving and Creating A Life You Love" (Scatter Joy Publishing, 2009).

To enter, all you have to do is e-mail your name, address and phone number to tattlecontest@phillynews.com (no hyphens or spaces) by noon Friday with one sentence about how you like to scatter joy. If you're joyless but still want to win, you can get joyous ideas at www.scatterjoy.com.

Five winners chosen at random will each receive a copy of the book.

Hannah makes splash at mine

Daryl Hannah ("Roxanne"), NASA scientist James Hansen and more than two dozen other mountaintop-removal-mining opponents were arrested yesterday during a protest in southern West Virginia.

State police said about 30 people were charged after they sat on the road and blocked a coal-processing plant in Raleigh County.

They were among several hundred protesters who rallied outside an elementary school that sits about 300 feet from the plant's coal-storage silo.

So that's why the blackboard's black.

You light up my cell

Joseph Brooks, 71, the songwriter and director behind one of the most annoying songs/films of all time, "You Light Up My Life," has been indicted in New York on charges of raping or sexually assaulting women who answered audition ads on Craigslist.

He was arraigned yesterday.

Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau says nine of the 11 victims answered an ad seeking women for acting roles.

Brooks, however, allegedly had only one act in mind.

Catfight

GLAAD is mad at Perez Hilton.

And the gossip blogger is mad at GLAAD.

TMZ.com reports that the gay- and lesbian-rights organization asked Perez, a gay rights advocate and former GLAAD employee, for an apology after he called will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas a "faggot," before getting punched in the face Monday morning in Toronto.

Perez say GLAAD is piling on.

"I am saddened GLAAD chose to victimize me further by criticizing me for how I non-violently dealt with a very scary situation that, unfortunately, turned violent," he told TMZ.com.

"While I doubt I will get an apology from GLAAD, nor do I expect one, I would just hope people know how difficult it is to intellectualize a situation and think rationally when a thug disguised as a musician is screaming at your face and intimidating you. I am just very fortunate and grateful that nothing more serious happened to me."

* Hollyscoop.com, meanwhile

spoke with Fergie's mother, Terri Jackson, about the altercation.

"Thank God it wasn't Fergie," Terri said. "I think she could have taken him out."

Jon or Kate?

Providing another clue as to how to-otally bogus most reality TV is, Kate Gosselin says in divorce papers she filed Monday in Montgomery County Court that her 10-year marriage is "irretrievably broken."

The "star" of "Jon & Kate Plus 8" also says that she and Jon have been unable to agree on how to divide their assets. Is she talking about the money or the kids? *

Daily News wire services contributed to this report.

Send e-mail to gensleh@phillynews.com.