Talk:John Travolta

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Contents

[edit] Improvement drive

A related topic, Pulp Fiction, is currently nominated on WP:IDRIVE. Vote for this article.--Fenice 06:51, 10 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Verified family

For the record members of the Travolta family include Margaret Travolta, John Travolta, Ellen Travolta, Joey Travolta, Rikki Lee Travolta; Jack Bannon, Rachel Travolta, Nicole Travolta, Michael Salvatore Travolta, Hellen (Burke) Travolta, Kelly Preston, Salvator Travolta, Molly Allen Ritter, Jonathan Rau, Jet Travolta, Tom Fridley, Sam Travolta, Ella Blue Travolta, Valentino Travolta, and Annie Travolta. This is not an all inclusive list, but all those listed are confirmed. Paramountpr

Please explain how you have confirmed the Rikki Lee Travolta allegation. User:Zoe|(talk) 23:12, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
Via direct work for and with the family, the verified members include:Margaret Travolta (Maggie), John Travolta, Ellen Travolta, Joey Travolta, Rikki Lee Travolta; Jack Bannon, Rachel Travolta, Nicole Travolta, Michael Salvatore Travolta, Hellen (Burke) Travolta, Kelly Preston, Salvator Travolta, Molly Allen Ritter, Jonathan Rau, Jet Travolta, Tom Fridley, Sam Travolta, Ella Blue Travolta, Valentino Travolta, and Annie Travolta (Ann). This is not an all inclusive list, but all those listed are confirmed. If confirmation is needed on a person not listed, please contact and assistance will be offered. Paramountpr 14:55, 24 June 2006 (UTC)


Rikki Lee Travolta, Jonathan Rau, and Tom Fridley are nephews of John Travolta. Well known fact. Molly Allen, Rachel Travolta, and Nicole Travolta are nieces. DonnaMo 13:48, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Rikki Lee Travolta is John Travolta's nephew.Roadracer123 14:18, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] When was 'Moment By Moment' filmed?

Just curious about Travoltas long hair in this film, and his short hair in SNF and Grease. I mean to have read he went almost directly from SNF to the filming of Grease? Wasn't 'Moment...' done AFTER 'Grease'? Does anyone know dates/months of filming of all these three films?




[edit] Australian Football team

"He celebrated with the Australian national football team in their dressing room following their qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup"

??

Why is this included in the article? and secondly why was he celebrating with the Australian team in the first place? Does he have some sort of connection to Australia?

In any case this sentence should be removed. Jaw101ie 20:54, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

John Travolta celebrated with the Australian team because he has an endorsement contract with Qantas Airlines, based out of Australia, and as a part of that promotion he served as Captain in special promotional flights of the Australian team. Paramountpr 14:59, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sicilian

Does anyone have a reliable source that his father was of Sicilain origin? And a source that describes John Travolta as a Sicilian-American (if anyone wanted to add that cat) Mad Jack 07:52, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

[1], [2]. Arniep 18:08, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
Eh, the first source is not reliable. It's "some guy's website", essentially, and all it says is that Travolta's parents were Irish and Italian. The second source, which is reliable, just says, on his father, "He may be from the commune of Godrano, in the province of Palermo, in Sicily". Although we could say, in the article, that his father "May" have been from Sicily, citing that source, we certainly shouldn't put him in a Sicilian-American category. Mad Jack 19:03, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
Yes, you can place him in "Sicilian American" category. I have emailed the second source regarding the following information, which I just added to the article -- Travolta's paternal grandfather, also named Salvatore Travolta, immigrated to the United States in 1904, at the age of 25. He arrived in New York City on 23 June 1904, aboard the "Nord-America" from Palermo, Sicily, according to the shipping manifests posted at www.ellisisland.org. He gave his hometown as Godrano, Sicily.[1]Kitchawan 21:06, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Image

Uhh....a movie poster, or VHS or DVD cover would usually be necessary in articles about the film. The most necessary image would be a movie screenshot, about who the actor played. --PJ Pete

[edit] Good Article

This is a really good, well-written article! loulou 18:15, 11 August 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Controversy

Italian culture my ass! Fenrir2000 10:07, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mother's name

Travolta, the youngest of the six children in a Roman Catholic family to Salvatore and Helen Tom, was born in Englewood, New Jersey.

Tom?? Is that vandalism? –☆ CieloEstrellado 03:15, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

It was vandalism. Fixed. ☆ CieloEstrellado 03:21, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] And the award...

...for the unintentionally funny goes to: There has also been widespread speculation that Travolta's son Jett does not have Kawasaki syndrome ... because this illness is primarily found in Japanese children under the age of five.


[edit] "Family" section

The section on "Family" needs a complete rewrite. It doesn't mention, for example, when Travolta married Kelly Preston or the fact that they have a daughter, much less her name. Rather, it's all about allegations that Travolta and Preston's son is autistic, which are ultimately sourced to a Hollywood gossip blog, and a major newspaper's gossip column which uses as its only source the same blog entry (plus a summary of Usenet posts). The section also says, In the words of a director of one advocacy video, Joey's support of organizations like Cure Autism Now keeps him up at night, such is his fear of authorities breaking down his door and taking him away to be "cured". This belongs, if anywhere, in a "Criticism" section of the Joey Travolta article, but as it is unsourced criticism of a living person, it probably does not belong anywhere in Wikipedia. --Metropolitan90 02:48, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree. This family section needs to be deleted for the most part, I took a look at 'Hollywood Interrupted' & Clambake (xenu.net) and one's a gossip blog, the other an anti-Scientology message board. Neither one is WP:RS. My attempts to edit this mess have met with reverts and someone has put semi-protected on the article, as if the real problem was n00bs vandalizing it! I am a n00b, but no vandal. Suggest that someone who agrees with me correct the real problem: poorly sourced derogatory info.

S. M. Sullivan 01:56, 10 February 2007 (UTC)S. M. Sullivan

Mark Ebner is an award winning investigative journalist. Just because he writes about Hollywood doesn't make his website "gossip". His article is credible; the "Kawasaki syndrome through carpet cleaning" that Travolta is telling isn't. I am therefore restoring it. --Tilman 07:47, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

You're only putting it in there because it makes them look bad, and you are searching for any tiny little thing to make them look bad and put it in because they are Scientologists, that's the real reason, let's not kid ourselves here. And she didn't say he got the syndrome through carpet cleaning, she said he had it, when he was at the hospital being treated or checked out for it, he was crawling around on the carpet and breathing in the fumes, how did you misread that? And you're no doctor. 24.69.67.173 01:34, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

Actually, "S. M. Sullivan", you are a vandal. -- Antaeus Feldspar 21:18, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

If I had put a pointless link to derogatory info into someone's bio, then I would be a vandal. Vandals do that. Hypocrites do it, too. Since I've come here, I've seen a link to Glen Stollery's 'Tom Cruise is Nuts' website get removed from the Tom Cruise bio. Who put it there? Not me. It was removed by Cyberanth, by the way. If you're so concerned about vandalism I could also point out the links to Tilman's anti-Scientology site that somehow found their way into the bios of living persons who happened to be Scientologists. Putting such links into these bios was vandalism. You and your friends have some 'splaining to do. -- S. M. Sullivan 02:16, 11 February 2007 (UTC)S. M. Sullivan

Please go read Wikipedia:Vandalism; it's pretty clear from your incorrect declarations about "this would be vandalism", "that would be vandalism" that you don't know what the Wikipedian definition of vandalism excludes. Now, changing a URL so that it still claims to be pointing to an award-winning magazine article but actually now points to a different document altogether, especially while falsely describing your action as "correcting" the link, now that's vandalism. -- Antaeus Feldspar 02:41, 11 February 2007 (UTC)
Note that he still hasn't 'splained that one :-) --Tilman 07:39, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

I have it on very good authority that Travolta is not the actual name of John or his family. John's real last name was Biezel. Then he changed it to Rojas. Finally he settled on Travolta because he wanted to come across like he was Italian even though he's not. I also have it on good authority that many of the supposed Travoltas are actually not related to each other but are a "Family" put together by the film studios of different actors. I went to high school with one of the "family" members. I know this is fact because of having gone to high school with one of the Travolta/Biezel/Rojas people and they are always bragging how this group of totally unrelated German and Mexican individuals are passing themselves off as an Italian family. However I don't want to add it to the article without documentation. Does anyone have documentation so we can put an end to this scam of the American people? ElBrazoOnofre (talk) 22:07, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

Very amusing. Just what I need on a quiet Friday evening with no vandals that need blocking right now. If you want it in, why don't you provide reliable, verifiable sources? --Rodhullandemu (Talk) 22:21, 7 March 2008 (UTC)
I know this is true. The Travoltas are not a family. They were assembled by a film studio to appear as if they are a family. John Travolta's real last name is Biezel. I went to high school with with one of the Travolta/Biezel/Rojas people. I don't want to add it to the article without documentation and me being an eye witness doesn't count. Because this is absolutely true there must be documentation out there and I am asking for help to see if anyone has it. ElBrazoOnofre (talk) 13:19, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Scientology series tag

I've been editing Barbara Schwarz and noticed that Mr. Travolta appears in the {ScientologySeries} info box. Since the box wasn't in this article I added it under the Other section where it mentions his relationship with the CoS. The picture of the kiss on the stairs should probably be deleted by somebody who edits this article regularly. I don't plan to edit any further but it might be a good idea to move the CoS info to his personal life section, if he were a Christian/Muslim/Jewish/Hindu/etc. would his affiliation with them be listed under "Other"? Anynobody 07:39, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 11 year gap

Between staying alive and pulp fiction (11 year gap) can we really say he was part of 'major' films? okay, the 'look who's talking' franchise was reasonable successful, but there were 5 years between staying alive and look who's talking.... hardly prolific. Most of the films he was involved with in this period were turkeys. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.191.228.4 (talk • contribs) 11:16, March 21, 2007 (UTC)

[edit] BLP concerns

I have deleted material that in my opinion clearly violates WP:BLP. Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia, not a tabloid newspaper. Malicious rumours and unsubstantiated sexual allegations have no place here. Such material violates policy because BLP entries must be edited sensitively, conservatively, responsibly, and factually. This material is neither notable nor important to the topic of the article. Nor is it encyclopaedic. It has no place in an encyclopaedia. Do not replace this material without first of all obtaining a strong consensus from several unbiased and well-established editors. FNMF 05:50, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

When removing stuff per WP:BLP, it's best to post it to the talk page. Otherwise, people who may be able to find reliable sources for the information may not know what was removed. ShadowHalo 20:29, 9 May 2007 (UTC)
On the contrary, here is what WP:BLP actually says: "Unsourced or poorly sourced contentious material — whether negative, positive, or just highly questionable — about living persons should be removed immediately and without discussion from Wikipedia articles, talk pages, user pages, and project space." In any case, the material is non-encyclopaedic, whether reliable sources are found or not. FNMF 23:30, 9 May 2007 (UTC)
The material in question should not be re-included unless and until a consensus of well-established editors agrees to such re-inclusion. FNMF 09:51, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
I support reinclusion. I disagree that what you apparently deleted is "poorly sourced". --Tilman 16:12,

28 May 2007 (UTC)

I strongly agree with FNMF that poorly sourced derogatory material, especially of a sexual nature, does not belong in Wiki bios. So thanks to all who remove this sort of stuff when they see it. 69.12.131.206 20:24, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Deletion of trivia section

I have deleted the recently added trivia section. I draw editors' attention to WP:BLP#Trivia_sections, which explicitly states that BLP entries should not have trivia sections. The reason for this is that such sections then become justifications for the inclusion of non-notable material that may often violate WP:BLP. The deleted material is the following: "Travolta stated in a 2005 interview with Reader's Digest that he is nocturnal.[2]" Editors who strongly feel this material belongs in the entry may attempt to find a place for it (personally, I don't believe this is in any way notable material and should simply be removed). FNMF 01:55, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

You're probably right... thanks. It is fairly interesting though, if intrinsically "trivial."
Candent shlimazel 15:00, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Picture

The picture of Travolta in the actor infobox features him holding a drink. This is rather informal and is not consistent with the style of the other headlining photographs which I have seen in other biographical articles. I understand that images used in articles must have a Wikipedia-compatible license, and that this one was found on Flickr, but, does anyone else think that perhaps the image should be cropped down, so that it looks a little bit more like a portrait? -Severa (!!!) 02:49, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

I see your point about the image being informal because he's holding a drink. I also think it looks kind of odd with Travolta hugging the left edge of the image and having space on his right. It so obviously looks like a cropped shot because it's not centred. I've cropped it down to just his head and by doing this have also centred it. The original image is still in Commons, so if anyone disagrees they will be able to revert. I prefer the smaller image, and as it's being used solely to identify Travolta, the only thing we really need to see is his face. Rossrs 02:12, 8 June 2007 (UTC)
The cropped-down version of the image looks better. I also noticed that the previous image's large size stretched the actor infobox out of its usual proportion. So thank you for fixing this issue. -Severa (!!!) 07:10, 12 June 2007 (UTC)
You're welcome, Severa(!!!) Rossrs 08:55, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Movie listing

He's been in a lot of films. I suggest this overly extensive list that dominates the length of this article be chopped down to his most notable roles and a reference such as IMDB be used (already is) instead for those who need a complete list. Piperdown 20:31, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Hilarious quote.

Was reading Film4 and, in an interview about his latest foray, Hairspray there was some Gay backlash by a rights group, who said that there was some kind of anti-Gay undertone. Now, the funny part was in his reply;

“ There is nothing gay in this movie. ”

Oh really.. ;-) ♥♥ ΜÏΠЄSΓRΘΠ€ ♥♥ slurp me! 20:44, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Controversy

I added the autism allegations. They are widespread and extensively published. It might not be pro-Travolta but to say the NYP is anti-travolta is absurd. Someone else can post his rebuttal there if they would like. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by RyanHoliday (talk • contribs) 21:50, August 23, 2007 (UTC).

The celebrity child in question had a bounty on their head by People Magazine. He is indeed notable. If multi-sourced allegations from a trusted, best selling Hollywood Journalist and the New York Post don't qualify then half the content in this bio needs to go. I'm not trying to cause problems, and really I like John Travolta, but this story is notable. It made the front page of Digg AND Reddit along with every single other celebrity blog out there. RyanHoliday 01:09, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

If you have a better idea for the wording--by all means. The event itself is extremely significant. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by RyanHoliday (talk • contribs) 01:12, August 24, 2007 (UTC).


From BLP:

"A politician is alleged to have had an affair. He denies it, but the New York Times publishes the allegations, and there is a public scandal. The allegation may belong in the biography, citing the New York Times as the source."

This is EXACTLY what we are dealing with here. Change the wording if you like, but it stays. —Preceding unsigned comment added by RyanHoliday (talk • contribs) 17:23, August 24, 2007 (UTC)

  • Per A plea, if their son is afflicted with a neurological disorder, Scientology doctrine may label their son a "degraded being". An important rule of thumb when writing biographical material about living persons is "do no harm". Travolta apparently has stated their son's disability is Kawasaki syndrome. Wikipedia is not the place to post autism allegations that will result in giving this man anguish over his religion and his son. -- Jreferee (Talk) 01:21, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
I agree, it shoots an arrow through the heart of the poor man. Let him practice scientology in peace. ~Neurodiversity9 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.70.209.115 (talk) 08:27, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Receding hairline

An edit was included into the "personal life" section of this article tonight, with respect to Travolta's receding hairline. The reference source used was a tabloid website[3], which doesn't quite meet the reliable source standard. Even if it did, his having a receding hairline isn't particularly notable; there would need to be some evidence that it is a significant fact that has a direct impact on the reason for his notability (i.e., film star). Risker (talk) 05:19, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

I disagree and challenge you to show the source you are using for the basis of your argument. It is notable as he is a public figure and makes an effort to disguise his true appearance. It is notable that he does that. Bluefield (talk) 13:53, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Your cite consists of two photos. They say nothing about a wig, or a hair transplant. Indeed, your own additions say "apparently", which is good as admitting that you are guessing and conducting original research (if we could generously call it that). Either way, your addition fails to meet acceptable standards. --Escape Orbit (Talk) 22:04, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Picture

On the Picture on the right John is in Sweden. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.231.82.48 (talk) 16:25, 7 March 2008 (UTC)