Rashida Jones Apologizes for Travolta Gay Joke

Image by Getty Images

By Samantha Malone August 16, 2012

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.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

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. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO