Now they both feel like dopes

Michael Douglas believes his son’s five-year prison sentence for selling methamphetamine could be a lifesaver.

“He was going to be dead or somebody was going to kill him,” Douglas said on NBC’s “Today” show Monday. “My son was a drug dealer, and he tried to kill himself for a while, and I can’t condone his behavior.”

Douglas expressed hope that incarceration would give 31-year-old Cameron Douglas the time he needs to kick the drug habit that has plagued him since he was 13.

“It’s going to take that amount of time for him to rebuild and start himself afresh,” he said adding: “With all the mistakes and the disease that Cameron has, he is a great young man, and I wouldn’t be supporting him if I didn’t feel that way.”

The 65-year-old Oscar winner has accepted much of the blame for his son’s problems, calling himself an absentee father.

“You have to catch it early,” he said. “Your options once your children turn 18 are limited.”

Master of her romaine

Jerry Seinfeld’s wife did not copy a cookbook author when she released her own techniques for getting children to eat vegetables, a federal appeals court has ruled.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan sided with Jessica Seinfeld in her 3-year-old dispute with Missy Chase Lapine, saying their books were “not confusingly similar.”

“Stockpiling vegetable purees for covert use in children’s food is an idea that cannot be copyrighted,” the appeals court wrote in its opinion.

The birthday bunch

Actor Lance Henriksen (“Millennium,” “Aliens”) is 70. Comedian-actor Michael Palin (Monty Python) is 67. Actor John Rhys-Davies (“The Lord of the Rings”) is 66. Actress Tina Yothers is 37. Singer Craig David is 29. Actress Danielle Fishel (“Boy Meets World”) is 29. Singer Chris Brown is 21.