John Travolta Mispronounces Idina Menzel’s Name

Image by Getty Images

By Anne Cohen March 3, 2014

If your name is actually Adela Dazeem, you may be getting a lot of unwanted tweets today.

The Twitterverse exploded during last night’s Oscar ceremony, when a confused John Travolta mispronounced singer Idina Menzel’s name, accidentally referring to her as Adela Dazeem.

Menzel got a standing ovation for her performance of the Academy Award-winning song “Let It Go” from this year’s Disney sensation, “Frozen.”

But the damage was done. 0.02 seconds later, a meme was born. A Twitter account has already been set up for @AdelaDazeem. As of today, it has 13, 500 followers.

THANK YOU, JORN TROMOLTO!

— Adela Dazeem (@AdelaDazeem) March 3, 2014

And yes, good ol’ Buzzfeed has a list called “If John Travolta Had To Pronounce Everyone’s Name At The Oscars.” Highlights include Jart Liters (Jared Leto), Lunesta Knee-Congo (Lupita Nyong’o), Janet Loorenstein (Jennifer Lawrence), and Leonart DiCamry (Leonardo DiCaprio).

Funnily enough, this photo was snapped backstage as John was studying his script.

Come on, say it with me John, I-DI-NA MEN-ZEL.

Anne Cohen was the Forward’s deputy digital media editor. When she’s not looking for the secret Jewish history of Voodoo in New Orleans, or making lists about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she writes for The Assimilator. She graduated from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism with an M.S. magazine concentration in 2012.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO