Perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised that DeGeneres’s tweet took off in the way it did; after all, a message from an account with 26.7 million followers that combines the selfie phenomenon with a bevy of Hollywood stars at an event with a massive global audience is hardly going to pass by unnoticed.
But two million retweets?!? That’s going some. Especially when you consider the record previously belonged to Barack Obama, whose ‘victory’ tweet from 2012’s presidential election got more than 300,000 retweets in its first 40 minutes (it now has a mere 780,000 retweets).
Actor Bradley Cooper used DeGeneres’s Samsung Galaxy Note 3 to grab the shot, which included stars such as Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Kevin Spacey, Julia Roberts and Lupita Nyong’o, as well as DeGeneres herself, of course. Look at ’em all, crowded together in front of the lens, carefully making sure their heads don’t touch.
“If only Bradley’s arm was longer,” DeGeneres tweeted with the selfie, adding, “Best photo ever.”
If only Bradley’s arm was longer. Best photo ever. #oscars pic.twitter.com/C9U5NOtGap
— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) March 3, 2014
Samsung’s presence was felt throughout Sunday night’s ceremony, which was hosted by Degeneres. Besides her use of the Note 3 for the selfie, and the device’s multiple stage appearances (which had absolutely no air of product placement about them whatsoever) as she grabbed various shots of the star-studded audience, the Korean tech firm also ran a slew of ads highlighting its range of mobile offerings, among them the very first TV spot for the new Galaxy S5 handset, shown below.
