"My Big Fat Greek Wedding" Makes Sales Hit with "My Fractured Life" Buyers

Statistics from mass media book and DVD retailer Amazon.com shows the crossover success of international hit film "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" with novel "My Fractured Life" by "Tony n' Tina's Wedding" star Rikki Lee Travolta.

Amazon.com reports the mutual popularity of the DVD "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" with the novel "My Fractured Life" by Rikki Lee Travolta of "Tony n' Tina's Wedding Fame" among online customers.

"My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is the highest grossing independent film of all time, generating over $241-million in worldwide box office and electronic media sales.

Written by actress Nia Vardalos and produced by Rita Wilson and Oscar winner Tom Hanks, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" makes light of the stereotypes of relationships and marriage within communities with strong ethnic heritage and tradition. Subsequent to an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay it was spun off in to an ABC sitcom.

Travolta and Vardalos are both alum of Chicago's famed comedy center Second City. Other veterans of the Improv hub include "Saturday Night Live" star Horatio Sanz, George Wendt of "Cheers" fame, and the late Chris Farley.

Celebrating the same humor in Italian-American culture, "Tony n' Tina's Wedding" is longest running stage comedy in history. The interactive comedy opened February 14, 1988 in New York City and has been staged in over 100 cities worldwide including Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, and Maui in the United States; as well as in Canada, Japan, and Australia.

Rikki Lee Travolta was the first celebrity guest star in the "Tony n' Tina's Wedding" franchise. Based on the critical and commercial success of Travolta's appearances throughout the United States, Mila Kunas ("That 70's Show"), Frankie Avalon ("Grease"), New York Met Lee Mazzilli, and Joey McIntyre (New Kids on the Block, "Boston Public") have performed in association with "Tony n' Tina's Wedding."

Travolta's book "My Fractured Life" includes behind-the-scenes details associated with "Tony n' Tina's Wedding." There is also insight into the film and television industry, from the prospective of an Italian-American.

"Travolta has a great way of looking at Hollywood and the lifestyle of show business," states the Spokane Spokesman Review Book Club. Reviews at Amazon.com call the book "groundbreaking."

Amazon.com is the world's biggest Internet retailer, with more than 30 million customers around the world.

As reported by Amazon.com, "My Fractured Life" shares popularity with the New York Times fiction bestsellers "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd, "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown, "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel, "Dry: A Memoir" by Augusten Burroughs, "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides, and "Mystic River" by Dennis Lehane.

One of the few books to be popular with both fiction and nonfiction audiences, sales data shows that "My Fractured Life" is also a fashionable purchase of Amazon.com, Borders Books and Music, and Barnes and Nobel customers favoring the nonfiction top seller "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand which was adapted into the critically successful film "Seabiscuit" starring Tobey Maguire and Jeff Bridges.

Figures published by Amazon.com as of October 22, 2003 show growth of 850,780 positions in its official sales rank by Travolta's "My Fractured Life" from the month of September.

"This was another great quarter for Amazon.com, driven by our customers' taking advantage of our lower prices, free shipping and expanded selection," said Tom Szkutak, Amazon.com's chief financial officer, during a conference call with the media.

During the month of October Amazon.com has had to replenish its inventory of the Travolta book five times due to escalating sales. Barnes and Nobel was forced to network with multiple independent booksellers to cover demand during the month when sales depleted its entire warehouse inventory.

Amazon.com offers Travolta's "My Fractured Life" to International audiences through www. Amazon.com (United States), www.Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom), www.Amazom.de (Germany), www.Amazon.fr (France), www.Amazon.co.jp (Japan), and www.Amazon.ca (Canada).

Distributor Ingram Book Group maintains a National Book Clubs Standing Order Program that supplies selections of the Today Show's "Today Book Club," Good Morning America's "Read This!" program, the USA Today Book Club, and the "Reading with Ripa" light fiction program of Live with Regis and Kelly.

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