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 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.

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. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO