John Travolta apologizes to Menzel for Oscars flub

NEW YORK -- John Travolta apologized to Tony Award winner Idina Menzel for mangling the pronunciation of her name during the Oscars telecast, saying he'd been "beating myself up" over it.

On Sunday's Academy Awards show, Travolta took the stage and introduced Menzel, but seemed to say "Adele Dazeem" instead. About 43 million people were watching, and social media has mocked him relentlessly since, especially since he attended rehearsals.

Menzel, who played Maureen Johnson in "Rent" onstage and on screen and Elphaba in "Wicked," seemed unperturbed by the flub as she sang "Let It Go," from the animated film "Frozen."

Travolta said in a statement Tuesday: "I've been beating myself up all day. 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!"

A Twitter account with the handle @adeladazeem went up after the mistake. On Facebook, a Travolta-fier Name Generator, which butchers any name typed in, became popular.

Menzel next stars in the new Broadway musical "If/Then," which reunites the creative forces behind "Next to Normal" -- music by Tom Kitt, story by Brian Yorkey and direction by Michael Greif. Menzel plays a woman who, on the verge of turning 40, moves to New York with the hope of a new life.

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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits