John Travolta’s Oscar Creepiness Analyzed By Body Language Expert
John Travolta’s Oscar appearance was positively creepy and had millions of women cringing at the inappropriateness of it all. Now, a body language expert sheds some light about what we witnessed on Sunday night.
The veteran actor seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact that women don’t appreciate being touched so intimately without their approval and from what we saw with Idina Menzel on stage and Scarlett Johansson on the red carpet Travolta is in need of some lessons in decorum.
John Travolta was trying too hard to be the funny guy and perhaps channel his inner Benedict Cumberbatch, when he photobombed Johansson while she was posing for photographers on the red carpet. The 61-year-old actor grabbed Scarlett’s waist and tried to kiss her cheek, while she stood like the Oscar statue.
If that wasn’t bad enough, when Travolta was presenting with Idina Menzel, whose name he butchered in last year’s ceremony, once again he got in the lady’s face and she seemed very uncomfortable, but played along.
In a report from the Independent, body language expert and author of The Body Language Bible, Judi James, analyzed John Travolta’s creepy behavior at the Oscars.
“But it’s Travolta I feel sorry for. Greeting rituals of any kind are all about status and power displays and perhaps the veteran film star thought a little faux-sexual fooling about might actually receive a grateful and complimentary reception from the two women. Unfortunately both took on the facial expressions of someone having their leg humped by an over-keen puppy, creating the perfect storm in terms of body language poses.
“Grabbing Johansson might have worked had she screamed with delight at the surprise intervention. But instead she turns her head away as he tries to plant a kiss on her cheek and then she lowers him even further by staring deadpan into the camera.
“Travolta’s body language with Menzel is rather more bizarre as he seems to persist in his hilarity despite the fact that her signals are suggesting he should stop. This was presumably based on a shared joke about forgetting her name but his chin-grasp suggests a determination to hold her in the pose he wants to perform, complete with eye contact and romantic-looking smiles. Unlike Johansson, Menzel is smiling as she pulls away but her teeth are clenched, suggesting a polite social rictus rather than a grin of shared fun and then breaking away to clap suggests she wants the audience to help her out of the predicament.”
Even though both women seemed mortified at John Travolta’s creepiness during the Oscars telecast, there are photos that paint a different picture as both Scarlett and Irina were seen with the offender smiling and hugging backstage.
Do you think John Travolta was creepy at the Oscars?
[Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]
