Ellen’s epic Oscars selfie was actually a paid stunt for Samsung

IT broke Twitter when it was re-tweeted more than 2.8 million times, but was Ellen’s record-breaking selfie a random injection of fun or a premeditated stunt?

INDUSTRY insiders are saying that Ellen’s epic celebrity filled selfie that broke Twitter was actually a premeditated stunt to promote a mobile phone.

Carrying a white Samsung Galaxy phone, Ellen wandered into the crowd during yesterday’s ceremony and gathered a cluster of stars, including Meryl Streep, Bradley Cooper and Brad Pitt, and snapped a picture which she urged people around the world to re-tweet.

If only Bradley's arm was longer. Best photo ever. #oscars pic.twitter.com/C9U5NOtGap

— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) March 3, 2014

More than 2.8 million people did exactly what she asked, and for a short period of time, Twitter buckled under the stress.

But it was the white phone in Ellen’s hand (a Samsung, not an iPhone like she usually uses) that alerted people to the fact this was not a random injection of fun by the Oscars host, but rather a pre-planned ploy to please one of the events major sponsors, Samsung.

As CNET joked, the gimmick was probably dreamt up in a board meeting at the tech giant’s head office.

A rear view of the epic selfie. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP)

“’Hey, I know,’ one wise Samsungite must have said. ‘How ‘bout we pay Ellen a ton of money to take a selfie with one of our products?’

“’Oooh. That’s so modern,’ a boss must have replied. ‘The kids will love that.’”

Even if it was a paid promo, the celeb selfie was still without a doubt one of the highlights of the ceremony.

DeGeneres also tweeted this morning that she handed out Samsung phones to every viewer at her talk show, further arousing suspicions of a collaboration with the brand.

I gave everyone in my audience a @SamsungMobileUS Galaxy Note 3. Anyone else want one? http://t.co/IEBeuU8MDN

— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) March 3, 2014

DeGeneres earlier revealed to E! that her original idea was not to take a multi-selfie, but to crop Meryl Streep out. But then stars started rushing in to be in the pic.

“That was going to be the joke,” she told the website. “But it doesn’t matter. It was just great.”

“I thought it would crash,” DeGeneres said of the Twitter servers. “But I didn’t know everyone would do it.” The comedienne continued, “What’s funny is that Lupita’s brother is the most prominent. And then Jared came running over to be in it. And Angie got it in. I didn’t expect all that.”