John Travolta Blames Goldie Hawn for His Infamous 'Adele Dazeem' Flub

Adele Dazeem? We have Goldie Hawn to thank for that.

On Jimmy Kimmel Live's special post-Oscars show, John Travolta explained once and for all what led to him mangling singer Idina Menzel's name at last year's Oscar ceremony.

At first, Travolta tried to play it off with a jab at Brian Williams: "I was in a Chinook helicopter... and that's the truth!" But then he gave us the real (and really strange) story: Travolta says he was rushed for time before he was supposed to present — he only had a minute and 15 seconds to prepare, rather than the 15 minutes he was originally told — because the page that was supposed to escort him onstage "got stuck in an elevator."

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Then he ran into Goldie Hawn backstage: "Now Goldie Hawn is charismatic, sexy, beautiful... and I was starstruck." Travolta said he was busy "hugging and loving her up" when he realized he needed to be onstage. Then just before he went on, they changed the spelling of Menzel's name on the prompter to a phonetic spelling. When he saw it, he said to himself, "I don't know that name!"

But Travolta says the flub actually worked in Menzel's favor: "She's had one of the best years of her career, and she gives me credit!" (Well, a little movie called Frozen might have something to do with that, too, John.)

Travolta also acknowledged the bad buzz surrounding his awkward reunion with Menzel at tonight's Oscars: "Apparently, I played with her chin too much."