As patriarch Gus, actor Michael Constantine (Gus Portokalos) certainly makes an impression in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, as does his "Windex" habit. So much so, that sales for Windex have gone up by an astounding twenty-three percent since the movie first came out. Talk about product placement! "The Windex people wanted to send a private jet to Wisconsin to photograph the 1 millionth bottle sold with me," recalls Constantine, "I said no. They just wanted more free advertising!"

Considering the success of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, it may sound bizarre that at one point the film was set to be distributed (by Lions Gate Films) and then dropped by an executive. Almost immediately after, the film caught on fire at the box office. So what was it that made people run to theatres? According to Constantine, it was partially due to the current state of the film industry. "People have a hard time relating to the characters and experiences in films, but here came a movie about a real human being and people took to it like crazy," says Constantine.

"I had people come up to me and tell me

My Big Fat Greek Wedding was released July 7th, 2002 and stars Nia Vardalos, Michael Constantine, Christina Eleusiniotis, Kaylee Vieira, John Kalangis, Lainie Kazan, Marita Zouravlioff, Sarah Osman. The film is directed by Joel Zwick.