John Travolta apologizes to Idina Menzel for flub of her name during Oscars telecast

NEW YORK, N.Y. – John Travolta is apologizing to Tony Award winner Idina Menzel (ih-DEE’-nah mehn-ZEHL’) for mangling the pronunciation of her name on the Oscars telecast.

Travolta says in a statement released Tuesday he’s been beating himself up all day and came to the conclusion Menzel would counsel: Let it go.

On Sunday night’s Academy Awards, Travolta took the stage and introduced Menzel but seemed to say “Adele Dazeem” instead. An estimated 43 million people were watching, and social media has been mocking him relentlessly since then.

Menzel played Maureen Johnson in “Rent” onstage and on screen and Elphaba in “Wicked.” She seemed unperturbed by the flub as she sang out “Let It Go,” from the animated film “Frozen.”