Talk show and Oscar host Ellen DeGeneres has made a name for herself as a bubbly individual and a bit of an airhead, kind of like the character Dory in the animated film Finding Nemo. She brought that same lightness to the crowd of the 86th Annual Academy Awards with great success. She ordered pizza, made fun of herself, and picked fun at the sometimes stuffy Hollywood crowd to the delight of all in attendance.
When she invited celebrity audience members to join her in an impromptu selfie, actors Jared Leto, Jennifer Lawrence, Channing Tatum, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Kevin Spacey, Brad Pitt and Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o, and her brother, all jumped at the opportunity. The photo was uploaded to Twitter and DeGeneres asked fans to share it. They did so religiously. So much so that the photo was shared a record 2.5 million times initially shutting down Twitter leaving folks with the following message:
That dwarfed the prior record of 700,000 set by a photo of President Barack Obama embracing first lady Michelle Obama after being reelected in 2012. It was shared so many times that Twitter users received an error message.
