CULTURE

Did John Travolta Mistake Taylor Swift for Her Drag Döppelganger Jade Jolie at the VMAs?

He blithely offered Swift’s VMA to the drag queen Jade Jolie.

by Steph Eckardt

2019 MTV Video Music Awards - Roaming Show
Dimitrios Kambouris/VMN19/Getty Images

There was, as ever, a lot going on at MTV’s Video Music Awards (aka the VMAs) in Newark, New Jersey on Monday night. It was only later, then, that viewers were able to appreciate the evening’s real highlight: yet another one of John Travolta‘s flubs when it came to presenting an award.

Lest you forgot, in 2014, Travolta infamously welcomed Idina Menzel to the stage of the Academy Awards as “Adele Dazeem.” Fully aware that the incident is still fresh on everyone’s mind five years later, then, Travolta courteously decided to hand the envelope containing the name of the winner for video of the year to co-presenter Queen Latifah. Naturally, that winner was Taylor Swift, who soon joined them onstage to accept the award for her ambitiously cameo-filled music video for “You Need to Calm Down,” bringing a significant portion of the video’s cast along with her.

And yet, Travolta still managed to disrupt the proceedings. To the delight of Twitter users across the country, he proceeded to offer the award not to Swift, but to RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Jade Jolie. In Travolta’s defense, Jolie was in TSwift drag, though she wasn’t exactly dressed as flashy as would expect for the star of that night’s awards show. The actor eventually realized as much when Jolie didn’t accept the award, at which point he took a closer look under her Swift-like bangs and did a double take.

The possibility does exist that Travolta was joking, though he certainly had Twitter convinced otherwise.

Some made the case that Jolie should get the award anyway, given that she even had Travolta fooled. Jolie didn’t go that far, though she was clearly amused by the evening’s turn of events. Hours after the show ended, she posted a video of the run-in to Instagram with the caption “???‍♀️❤️Almost got my first award tonight thanks to @johntravolta ??????.”

As of Tuesday morning, Travolta has yet to comment in response.

Related: Taylor Swift Takes Aim at Donald Trump in New Interview: “He Thinks This Is An Autocracy”

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