Shame on you, Internet, for calling John Travolta creepy. You all picked on him after the Oscars on Sunday night. There was the touchy-feely Chingate incident with Idina Menzel. And the Joe Biden moment with Scarlett Johansson. Memes were launched. Photoshoppers had a field day. This writer was as guilty of this as everyone else, commenting that Travolta probably thinks Scarlett Johansson is called Scrapfelt Chosensong. Well, now Johansson has launched a vigorous defense of Travolta, saying “there is nothing strange, creepy or inappropriate about John Travolta,” calling the encounter on the red carpet “sweet and totally welcome.”
Johansson, who co-starred with Travolta in A Love Song for Bobby Long, said “The image that is circulating is an unfortunate still-frame from a live-action encounter that was very sweet and totally welcome…That still photo does not reflect what preceded and followed if you see the moment live. Yet another way we are misguided, misinformed and sensationalized by the 24-hour news cycle. I haven’t seen John in some years and it is always a pleasure to be greeted by him.” Well, I guess I’ve been told, and my faith in the sincerity of Hollywood stars has been restored, although the cynic in me wonders if Johansson is also a Scientologist (no, apparently, in spite of Tom Cruise’s effort to recruit her). Vanity Fair, which is clearly siding with Travolta and Johansson on this one — even though it had lots of fun at his expense on Monday morning — printed an after-Oscars photo of the two looking chummy, as well as reporting that when Travolta and wife Kelly Preston entered the VF Oscar party, which the magazine reminds you is an “exclusive event,” that Travolta “was swarmed by A-list admirers who were eager to greet and be greeted by the double Oscar nominee.” Travolta himself saw the lighter side of all the jokes, noting that he’ll probably be invited back to next year’s Oscars. Surely after all this fuss, the only fair thing for Hollywood to do is to ask him to host next year’s show.
