John Travolta will present at the 94th Annual Academy Awards for the first time since 2015, when he and Idina Menzel presented best original song in a carefully orchestrated make-up for Travolta’s mangling of Menzel’s name the previous year.
This drama started at the 86th Academy Awards on March 2, 2014. While introducing Menzel’s performance of “Let It Go” from Frozen, Travolta mispronounced Menzel’s name as “Adele Dazeem.” The inexplicable gaffe made Travolta the subject of much mockery and ridicule in the media.
It was still prime joke material on the following year’s Oscar telecast, when host Neil Patrick Harris quipped “Benedict Cumberbatch – it’s not only the most awesome name in show business, it’s also the sound you get when you ask John Travolta to pronounce ‘Ben Affleck.’”
Later in the show, Travolta and Menzel teamed to present the award for best original song (which went to “Glory” from Selma). The moment was designed to show that Travolta was a good sport and that he was in on the joke.
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Menzel came out first and said, “Please welcome to the stage, my very dear friend, Glom Gozingo.”
Travolta appeared and said, “I deserved that, but you, you, my darling, my beautiful, my wickedly talented Idina Menzel.”
“You got it!” Menzel exclaimed.
“Is that right?” Travolta asked with mock concern.
Travolta’s 2014 gaffe was unfortunate, especially coming just moments before Menzel was about to perform on the Oscars for the first time to an audience of millions around the world. It could easily have thrown her performance; broken her focus and concentration. But ultimately it was probably a plus for her. It gave her an enormous amount of publicity and made people sympathetic to her.
And as Oscar gaffes go, it was completely eclipsed three years later when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway presented best picture to the wrong film – the most mind-boggling blunder in awards show history. (That gaffe also prompted a make-up the following year, when Beatty and Dunaway presented best picture a second time, this time, mercifully, without incident.)
The Academy announced five other presenters on Friday (March 11): Daniel Kaluuya, Mila Kunis, Lupita Nyong’o, Naomi Scott and Wesley Snipes.
Previously announced presenters include Lady Gaga, Ruth E. Carter, Kevin Costner, Anthony Hopkins, Lily James, Zoë Kravitz, John Leguizamo, Simu Liu, Rami Malek, Rosie Perez, Chris Rock, Uma Thurman and Yuh-Jung Youn.
Will Packer and Shayla Cowan, the producers of this year’s Oscar telecast, will continue to announce presenters and performers in the coming weeks.
The 94th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 27, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. The show will be televised live on ABC at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT and in more than 200 territories worldwide.