Plugola Central: ECW Press Announces 'Chris and Nancy' by Irvin Muchnick, Story of Benoit Murder-Suicide

July 16, 2007 – ECW Press announced today that it has signed author Irvin Muchnick to write a book about the sensational case of wrestler Chris Benoit.

The book, entitled CHRIS AND NANCY: The True Story of the Benoit Murder-Suicide and Pro Wrestling’s Cocktail of Death, will be published in 2008.

Muchnick is author of the hot-selling ECW Press book, WRESTLING BABYLON: Piledriving Tales of Drugs, Sex, Death, and Scandal (site: http://wrestlingbabylon.com; blog: http://muchnick.net/babylon), and has appeared extensively in media coverage of the Benoit case. The appendix of WRESTLING BABYLON documents the premature deaths of nearly 100 wrestlers over the last generation from drugs and related aspects of the pro wrestling lifestyle. That information has been cited both by commentators and by a member of Congress urging investigation of the billion-dollar pro wrestling industry.

Michael Holmes, senior editor of ECW Press, said: “We are delighted to be publishing what certainly will be the most authoritative and best-written full-length account of the Benoit tragedy and its implications. Irv Muchnick’s WRESTLING BABYLON is both one of the most important and one of the most commercially successful books in our company’s history. We expect CHRIS AND NANCY to break more new ground.”

ECW Press (site: http://ecwpress.com; blog: http://ecwpress.blogspot.com) was recently recognized by Publishers Weekly as one of North America’s fastest growing and most diversified independent publishers.

Information about and updates on CHRIS AND NANCY: The True Story of the Benoit Murder-Suicide and Pro Wrestling’s Cocktail of Death can be followed at http://benoitbook.com.

Media inquiries:

Simon Ware, Publicity Director, ECW Press

(simon@ecwpress.com; tel. 416-694-3348)

- or -

Irvin Muchnick (media@muchnick.net)

Todd Pitock on CBS News' 'Up to the Minute'

The objectors to the class-action copyright settlement are on a roll with media appearances for their own work. My friend and co-objector Todd Pitock -- author of the cover story in the July issue of Discover magazine, "Science and Islam" -- was interviewed last night on Up to the Minute on CBS. The five-minute video clip is viewable online at
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/uttm/main3455.shtml (go to the screen on the bottom right of the page).