John Travolta Apologizes to ‘Frozen’ Star Idina Menzel for Oscar Flub

After 43 million people watched with bemusement as John Travolta introduced Frozen star Idina Menzel as “Adele Dazeem,” the actor apologized to the singer of Oscar-winning song “Let It Go” and said he has been “beating myself up” over it since Sunday’s award show.

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“I’ve been beating myself up all day,” said Travolta in a statement released to AP. “Then I thought … what would Idina Menzel say? She’d say, ‘Let it go, let it go!’ Idina is incredibly talented and I am so happy Frozen took home two Oscars Sunday night!”

Travolta was the subject of relentless mocking on social media after the flub, with #AdeleDazeem trending nationally on Twitter and a “Adela Dazeem” Twitter account (Bio: “Tony Award winning star of Wocked“), garnering more than 20,000 followers. Earlier this week, Slate published The Adele Dazeem Name Generator that bastardizes, or “Travoltifies,” any given name, while David Letterman devoted Tuesday night’s Top Ten list to “Top Ten Ways To Mispronounce Idina Menzel.”

Menzel’s Oscar appearance raised her profile past ardent musical theater fans. According to The Washington Post, Menzel’s Academy Award performance and win fueled a surge in sales for If/Then, the Broadway musical starring the singer, with box office receipts doubling on Monday. As Hitfix pointed out, Menzel herself had some fun with the Travolta mixup, printing up special Playbills Tuesday night that replaced her name with “Adele Dazeem” and noted her past work in Nert (Rent), Wicked-ly (Wicked) and Farfignugen (Frozen).  

In our look at Upsets to Beat at this year’s Oscars, “Let It Go,” which Menzel performed on The Tonight Show accompanied by Jimmy Fallon, the Roots and a set of children’s instruments, was the favorite to win; a “bona fide anthem that’s Disney’s single biggest and best song in a generation, a tremendous showcase for Idina Menzel’s genre-defining pipes, and a rallying cry for its new not-your-mother’s-princesses vibe.”