John Travolta Finally Responds To His Adela Dazeem Disaster

We’ll always have Adela Dazeem.

John Travolta, however, wishes he’d actually pronounced the name of acclaimed singer Idina Menzel correctly at the Academy Awards. He didn’t, obviously, and the mistake heard round the world has triggered a boatload of fun (and a little mean) digs aimed at the Pulp Fiction star. There was the Vine video posted by Modern Family co-star Eric Stonestreet. There was the “Travoltifier,” created by Slate that gave people their own botched name. Travolta’s blunder basically has powered social media these past few days. Like when Frozen co-star Kristen Bell tweeted:

Do you think Travolta has noticed?

He’s noticed.

In a written statement (shared via EW.com), Travolta said that he has “been beating myself up all day.” But he’s choosing to see the light at the end of the tunnel. He continued:

And that, likely, will bring closure to one of the most memorable moments at the Academy Awards. Travolta didn’t give any explanation. So we are left to guess. Could he not read the prompter? Did he suffer a mini-stroke? Did the vowels in Idina Menzel’s name simply swim together at the least opportune time? Or does Travolta simply not give a care. “I’ll call you what I call you!”

No idea. But the Travolta verbal fumble really does prove how powerful (and deadly) social media can be in this day and age. Make a mistake on a telecast as high-profile as the Oscars, and it is EVERYWHERE for days. At the same time, Oscars host Ellen DeGeneres put social media to work for her, tweeting that “selfie” and breaking records for the most amount of Retweets. Social media can “giveth,” but it also has the very real opportunity to “taketh” away.

The best thing Travolta can do at this point is move on. He has a movie titled The Forger in post-production, with Tye Sheridan, Jennifer Ehle and Christopher Plummer. He’s also trying to get that John Gotti movie off the ground. With a little luck, and the good graces of a vicious Internet community, he’ll put this Adele Dazeem mess behind him… and Hollywood can move on to its next vocal disaster!