Travolta sorry for Oscar name gaffe

John Travolta says sorry for Oscar name mix-up. Photo/AP.

John Travolta says he's been feeling terrible over his much-ridiculed Oscars mangling of singer Idina Menzel's name - but believes 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.

"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,'' he added.

Frozen won best animated feature, while Let it Go won best original song.

As well as the 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 on 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 of Travoltify, in which Menzel reprised the role she played in the Broadway musical.

- AAP