Advertisement

Idina Menzel: It took ‘8 seconds’ to get over John Travolta gaffe

Share via

Adele Dazeem, er, Idina Menzel, said that John Travolta’s gaffe with her name “threw her” for a few seconds before she performed the Oscar-winning song “Let It Go” at this year’s Academy Awards. But only for a few.

“I heard it, I did,” the 42-year-old “Frozen” star told Savannah Guthrie on the “Today” show Thursday. “I don’t want to keep saying it because I don’t want him to feel worse or anything, because he sent lots of apologies and everything that were really nice.”

Indeed, Travolta has apologized to the Tony-winning songstress beyond his initial statement insisting he’d “been beating myself up” over the blunder, which took on a life of its own on the Internet almost as soon as the muttering left his lips.

Advertisement

OSCARS 2014: Full coverage | Best & worst moments

She also told Backstage that it took her “eight beats” to get over the initial mispronunciation while she was backstage.

“Then it happened. I heard that. I quickly said, ‘Get out of your ego and do your thing,’” she said, adding that she didn’t want the gaffe’s publicity to detract from her projects. (Oscar-winning “Frozen” has become the highest-grossing animated film of all time, the soundtrack has broken Billboard chart records and her latest musical, “If/Then,” has already opened on Broadway, marking her return to the Great White Way after 10 years.)

Advertisement

Menzel, who covers Billboard magazine’s April issue, told the mag that Travolta had sent her a “gorgeous e-mail” after the incident and that they became “buddies and it’s all cool now.” She also explained that she purposely avoided the media at first.

PHOTOS: Oscars 2014 show highlights

And on Thursday, the “Wicked” alum echoed the sentiment in front of a national TV audience.

Advertisement

“It threw me for like eight seconds, because I had done this whole preparation to make sure that I really was in my body and didn’t get too nervous, and let, you know, Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep sitting there, you know, make me so nervous,” she said. “So I was picturing my son Walker. I thought let me just sing it to him like we do in the bathtub and make sure I breathe. I had this mantra thing and then he said my name like that and I was like, ‘Did that just happen?’

“Then the orchestra started and then for eight seconds, I said, ‘Get your ... together! And like, stop worrying about your name and sing this song! You know, the world is going to see this song.’ So, it took me about eight seconds to get over myself.”

VIDEO: The Oscars in a time-lapse minute

Ladies and gentleman, that probably means the “wickedly talented Adele Dazeem” has let it go.

ALSO:

Advertisement

Mann goes for Diaz’s bum, not Upton’s, at ‘Other Woman’ premiere

Watch Samuel L. Jackson recount ‘Boy Meets World’ in a slam poem

Jennette McCurdy’s sitcom on hold after selfie scandal, KCA no-show

Follow Ministry of Gossip @LATcelebs.

Advertisement