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John Travolta blames broken elevator and Goldie Hawn for Idina Menzel mix-up

Written by . Published: February 23 2015

A broken elevator and Goldie Hawn were to blame for John Travolta's embarrassing 2014 Oscar night slip-up, because his assistant got stuck and couldn't ask anyone to cue the star for his presenting duties.


Flustered Travolta became the butt of every joke after the Academy Awards when he messed up Idina Menzel's name and called her Adele Dazeem during last year's live telecast, but he now explains he wasn't given enough time to prepare for his moment onstage.


Appearing on this year's (15) post-Oscars Jimmy Kimmel Live! TV special in the U.S., the Grease star said, "I was expected backstage and it was getting very close to the time I was supposed to go on and suddenly a page... grabbed me out of my seat and said, 'You're on in a minute and 15 seconds...'


"Later I found out that my actual page got stuck in an elevator and couldn't communicate to anybody, so then the back-up page came and rushed to get me. As I get backstage I run into Goldie Hawn... and I was starstruck. I'm hugging and loving her up and forgetting that I have to go and do this bit. They say, 'You're on... and by the way we've changed Idina's name to a phonetic spelling'.


"I get to her thing and I thought, 'What?' In my minds I was like, 'What does that mean?...' I didn't rehearse it that way."


Travolta appeared alongside Menzel at this year's Oscars, where the two stars poked fun at his slip-up before presenting an award.


The actor told Kimmel, "Idina agrees she's had, like, one of the best years of her life and career, and she gives me credit."

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