LOS ANGELES: John Travolta said he has been feeling terrible over his much-ridiculed Oscars mangling of singer Idina Menzel’s name — but concluded she would want him to “Let it Go.”
The actor triggered a storm of online mockery — including an app to “Travoltify” your own name — after mispronouncing the star’s name as he introduced her performance of the Oscar-winning song “Let it Go” from Disney hit “Frozen.”
The “Grease” and “Saturday Night Fever” star inexplicably called her “the wickedly talented, one and only ... Adele Dazeem,” at the 86th Academy Awards on Sunday.
“I’ve been beating myself up all day,” Travolta said in a statement released by his publicist. “Then I thought...what would Idina Menzel say, She’d say, Let it go, let it go!“
“Idina is incredibly talented and I am so happy ‘Frozen’ took home two Oscars Sunday night!” he added. “Frozen” won best animated feature, while “Let it Go” won best original song.
As well as a tsunami of ridicule on social media, including an “Adele Dazeem Name Generator” app to suggest how Travolta would introduce you — his embarrassing flub also provided publicity puffs for a couple of shows featuring Menzel.
Broadway show “If/Then,” in which she stars, tweeted a picture of her Monday captioned “You know her name! Idina Menzel stars in ‘If/Then’ on Broadway, March 5.”
Online video service Netflix meanwhile quoted Travolta’s name flub to promote its streaming of the 2005 film adaptation in which Menzel reprised her role in the Broadway musical “Rent.”
Travolta ‘beating self up’ over Oscar name mangle
Travolta ‘beating self up’ over Oscar name mangle
6 planets will parade across the night sky at the end of February
NEW YORK: Six planets are linking up in the sky at the end of February, and most will be visible to the naked eye.
It’s what’s known as a planetary parade, which happens when multiple planets appear to line up in the sky at once. The planets aren’t in a straight line, but are close together on one side of the sun.
Skygazers can usually spot two or three planets after sunset, according to NASA. Hangouts of four or five that can be glimpsed with the naked eye are less common and occur every few years. Last year featured lineups of six and all seven planets.
When will they be visible?
On Saturday, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn will be visible to the naked eye if clear skies allow. Uranus and Neptune can only be spotted with binoculars and telescopes.
What time is optimal for viewing?
Go outside about an hour after sunset and venture away from tall buildings and trees that will block the view. Look to the western sky and spot Mercury, Venus and Saturn close to the horizon. Jupiter will be higher up, along with Uranus and Neptune.
How to know if you’ve spied a member of the parade?
“If it’s twinkling, it’s a star. If it is not twinkling, it’s a planet,” said planetary scientist Sara Mazrouei with Humber Polytechnic in Canada.
The parade should be visible over the weekend and in the days after. Eventually, Mercury will bow out and dip below the horizon.
At least one bright planet is visible on most nights, according to NASA.
Glimpsing many in the sky at once is a fun way to connect with astronomers of centuries’ past, said planetary scientist Emily Elizondo with Michigan State University.
Ancient astronomers used to make sense of the universe “just by looking up at the stars and the planets,” Elizondo said, “which is something that we can do today.”
