What Adele Dazeem and John Travolta wrought after his Oscars flub - Los Angeles Times
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What Adele Dazeem and John Travolta wrought after his Oscars flub

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It’s been a few days since John Travolta’s “Adele Dazeem” flub, but the Internet, celebrity news outlets and late-night television couldn’t seem to get enough of it. On Tuesday, the actor finallly copped to the blunder.

Of course, we’re speaking of the actor’s epic butchering of Tony-winning singer Idina Menzel’s name at the Oscars when he introduced the performance of “Frozen’s” Oscar-winning song “Let It Go.”

The 60-year-old seemed to start the introduction with such conviction too, calling her the “wickedly talented, one and only Adele Dazeem.” Just listen to how he says “wickedly” ...

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Though he didn’t try to correct himself, Oscars host Ellen DeGeneres was sure to properly say “Idina Menzel” several times after the singer’s inspirational anthem.

One and only, indeed.

“I’ve been beating myself up all day,” Travolta said to Movies Now in an e-mail statement. “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!”

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The jury’s out on whether that actually qualifies as an apology...

It’s unclear what caused Travolta to stumble on the letters, but it turns out the actor was at Oscar rehearsals on Saturday, Movies Now reported Monday. To be fair, several presenters appeared to have problems with the teleprompters that night.

Naturally, the blunder took on a life of its own online with various iterations of the spelling and sound of the mangled name.

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A Twitter account for Adele Dazeem popped up shortly after the flub, setting its sights on being the “new Number 1 Source for live award show tweeting.”

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The account boasts “Hairspray”-era Travolta as its avatar and its second-ever tweet thanks “Travis Jarvolta” for christening the viral star.

“I just want to thank Travis Jarvolta for introducing me this evening,” it said. “I’d be nowhere without you #adeledazeem #Oscars #Oscars2014 #Frozen”

Other accounts on the micro-blogging site shared a faux-Wikipedia page for Dazeem, various .gifs of the mistake, and parody album for the newly minted pop star.

One cover displayed Menzel on a mock version of the “21” cover, the Grammy-winning album from “Rolling in the Deep” singer Adele Adkins. Another displayed “Adele Dazeem” in the same soft pink and black manner of Beyonce’s self-titled surprise album that dropped late last year.

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Slate.com even created its own “Travoltify Your Name” generator. (This uniquely named reporter got “Naomi Smarnold” and now totally empathizes with Menzel.)

Before Travolta’s statement was released, David W. Quinn of Chicago Now crafted a strongly worded piece about why Travolta owed Menzel an apology.

“There are so many rehearsals for the Oscars, that there was absolutely no reason that a seasoned actor should have introduced someone by the wrong name,” he wrote. “So, while we enjoy making fun of what happened, let us also make sure to acknowledge that it should not have happened.”

But it seems to be water under the bridge for the “Glee” actress, who tweeted her own glee over her Oscars performance well after the bungle heard ‘round the world went viral.

“Still pinching myself over my entire #Oscars experience,” she wrote Monday. “Dream come true.”

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Menzel also appeared on “The Tonight Show” Monday to perform “Let It Go” with Jimmy Fallon and the Roots using classroom instruments. Fallon touched on the flub quite a bit during his monologue, but there was no acknowlegment of the tongue twister from the actress.

Adele Dazeem, the consummate professional.

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Follow Ministry of Gossip @LATcelebs.

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