UPDATE: Since John Travolta’s blooper at the Oscars (Idina Menzel = Adele Dazeem) has been nearly eclipsing any other chatter about the big night, the actor himself has come forward with a good-natured official statement on his truly strange slip-up:
“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!”
The internet can now move on.
EARLIER: In the days following the Oscars, some Academy Award-related items continue to swirl around the internet. For one, what exactly happened with John Travolta’s bizarre butchering of Idina Menzel’s name? He called her Adele Dazeem, almost as if he was trying (and failing) to come up with an anagram on the spot. Watch that below, plus check out Slate’s “Travoltify” name generator, in which you can find out what your name would be using Travolta’s strange blooper logic.
On to more serious matters: the 2014 Oscars hosted by Ellen DeGeneres in a series of fab tuxedos and an Oz-inspired Witch outfit were the most watched Academy Awards show in 10 years, nabbing an impressive 43 million viewers. This is a 2.5 million increase from last year’s Seth MacFarlane hosted event, though the 18-49 demo has remained about even.
That may be thanks in part to DeGeneres’ expertise at working the celeb in-crowd –including that infamous record-breaking selfie. It turns out that was all Samsung’s idea. Talk about product placement.
Meanwhile among many unanswered questions are what is really going on between screenwriter John Ridley and director Steve McQueen, who asked to share screenwriting credit on “12 Years a Slave.” Both took home gold statues on Sunday. The Wrap digs into this unfolding story. I picked up on a chill between the two men early on. But Fox Searchlight managed to convince them both to say the right things during the awards race. Now the lid is coming off the dispute.
Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
