Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Rashida Jones Apologizes for Travolta Gay Joke

During a recent interview while promoting her new movie, “Celeste and Jesse Forever,” Shmooze favorite Rashida Jones got a bit too excited about celebrities coming out of the closet. While discussing her mild obsession with singer Frank Ocean, who recently declared that he is bisexual, Jones joked that John Travolta should just come out already. While her intentions were probably honorable (for the most part) the Parks and Recreation actress hit on a touchy subject for the “Grease” and “Saturday Night Fever” megastar.

“How many masseurs have to come forward? Let’s do this!” the actress, quipped, alluding to lawsuits filed this year by two masseurs who accused Travolta of sexual battery. The first lawsuit was dropped, and the second dismissed. Travolta has been married to Kelly Preston since 1991 and the couple has three children, including their eldest son Jett, who tragically died in 2009 from a seizure while the family was on vacation in The Bahamas.

Jones quickly took to to Twitter after the slip, apologizing and declaring that “nobody’s personal life is my business.” It is clear that Jones regrets the misplaced encouragement, and has learned not to tarnish her rising stardom by taking cheap jabs at Hollywood icons.

We’ll forgive her — if she promises not to gloat in the event of any big announcements from Travolta.

A message from our CEO & publisher 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.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.