At Sunday night's ACADEMY AWARDS, host Ellen DeGeneres managed to squeeze 10 A-list stars from the audience, as well as herself, into an epic selfie photo, which has now been retweeted more than 3 million times!
While many viewers wondered whether the bit was all part of a product placement ad for Oscar sponsor Samsung, whose phone DeGeneres used for the stunt, on Tuesday the company issued a statement denying that to be the case.
"While we were a sponsor of the Oscars and had an integration with ABC, we were delighted to see Ellen organically incorporate the device into the selfie moment that had everyone talking," the statement read. "A great surprise for everyone, she captured something that nobody expected."
The company went on to announce that it would be using its free publicity to raise money for charity. "In honor of this epic moment and of course, the incredible response of nearly 3 million retweets, we wanted to make a donation to Ellen's charities of choice: St. Jude (Children's Research Hospital) and the Humane Society (of the United States)," the company said. "Samsung will donate $1.5 million to each charity."
In the spirit of
The Academy Awards we say, 'Bravo Samsung!'
