Gemma Collins spectacularly butchers Joaquin Phoenix’s name while praising Joker star on podcast

‘TOWIE’ star professed her crush on actor, despite both mispronouncing and struggling to remember his name

Gemma Collins spectacularly butchered the pronunciation of Joaquin Phoenix’s name on her podcast while asking him to marry her.

The internet personality and TOWIE star confessed on her BBC Sounds podcast that she had a crush on Phoenix and wished for him to propose to her, but struggled to both pronounce and remember his name.

While answering a question from an artistic fan, who wanted suggestions on who she could draw, Collins suggested a number of people in the public eye.

Collins suggested herself, “The GC”, as someone the fan could draw, along with Boris Johnson. She then remembered that she had seen the comic book adaptation Joker recently, and thought Phoenix would make for a spectacular artistic inspiration.

“Maybe you could draw The Joker?” Collins suggested. “He was a very interesting character. And Jarquin Cortez, I think that’s who his name is, please marry me.

“You are the best actor, you had me gripped from the minute I watched you in that movie. And what I would give to just meet you! What a fantastic actor … Sorry to keep going on about Jarquin Cortez, but I do have a crush on him right now.”

Collins’ butchering of Phoenix’s name quickly earned comparisons to John Travolta, who wildly mispronounced the name of Wicked actor Idina Menzel during the 2014 Oscars.

TV personality Gemma Collins and Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix (Joe Maher/Tobias Schwarz/Getty Images)

As he introduced a musical performance by Menzel, Travolta called her “the wickedly talented Adele Dazeem”.

“Gemma Collins has truly relegated Adele Dazeem and Dula Peep to the sidelines today,” tweeted journalist Howell Davies.

“Dula Peep” was the product of US TV personality Wendy Williams, whose mangled attempt to remember the name of the then-fledgling pop star Dua Lipa became a popular internet meme.