John Travolta inadvertently gave the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards a meme-worthy moment this week when he appeared to mistake Drag Race star Jade Jolie for Taylor Swift during the ceremony.
Fortunately, it seems the pop superstar is taking the mix-up in her stride.
Actor and singer Todrick Hall – a longtime Swift pal, who co-stars in her You Need to Calm Down music video, and attended the VMAs as Taylor’s guest – says she just laughed off the awards show gaffe ― which was far from the Grease star’s first.
“I loved it,” Todrick told Jerry O’Connell on his talk show Jerry O. “We talked about it backstage, and Taylor thought it was hilarious.”
Jade Jolie, who also appears in the You Need to Calm Down video, captured the moment for posterity in a cheeky Instagram post shortly after the ceremony.
In his Jerry O interview, Todrick said the drag queen was, of course, flattered by John Travolta’s confusion.
“Jade Jolie has made quite the living performing ... at Play Nightclub, and she is a fantastic drag queen,” he said. “But everybody knows that she is like the Taylor Swift doppelgänger. So I think that was like the highest compliment he could ever pay her.”
Later in the interview, Todrick elaborated on Taylor’s plan to rerecord songs from her first six albums after her catalogue was acquired by megaproducer Scooter Braun in a controversial $300 million deal with her former record label.
“I think that [Scooter] is a very powerful person, and I think what he’s done in the music industry is undeniably amazing,” said Todrick, who was managed by Scooter in the early years of his career. “But I personally feel that was not the best move for him to do that. I felt like it was a little greedy. I just don’t think that he’s a great guy all around.”
Todrick, who is gay, went on to suggest that Scooter would be better served by trying to amplify marginalised voices in the music industry.
“I think that we need something to remind people and to inspire people and to encourage young artists who are queer, that are people of colour, to come out and be able to be on the radio,” he said. “I think he has the power to do that, and I have not seen him do it yet.”
Check out more of Todrick Hall’s Jerry O interview below...