John Travolta has expressed his devastation over “his friend” Heath Ledger’s death, although they never co-starred in a movie together and it’s unclear that they ever even met.

In an interview with Woman’s Day, he talks excessively about his feelings and claims to be Ledger’s idol:

WD: Did you know Heath? How has his death affected you?
JT: I did know Heath and I adored him. I am pretty devastated over this. He was my favourite actor and my favourite talent. It’s like losing James Dean. I would give back all my awards and all my nominations just to have him back — I think he is a real loss as a persona and as a talent. And this whole evening is very hard for me. We are celebrating Australia week in the USA — and it’s killing me. You know that he’s both of us. He’s Australian and from the United States, and he means a whole lot. It’s bad situation.

And then:

WD: How did you meet him?
JT: I wanted to meet him because I was very impressed with him from the very beginning. His agent introduced me to him at a party, and I just fell — I used every accolade. Actors need other actors to be inspired by, and he was “my” actor.

WD: How did he respond?
JT: I forget that anyone younger than me grew up with me. He was beautiful in his reaction. I was an idol of his — my reacting that way to his work really blew him away, but he was very modest and almost bashful about the compliment — and didn’t want to make a big deal about himself. But he was a big deal.

This all sounds pretty vague. My first reaction was that Scientology knows Tom Cruise is overexposed right now, but they needed some other believer to get out there and say they had valiantly tried to help Ledger get off drugs, since after all, they are the authorities.