- Ellen DeGeneres’ viral Oscar selfie was taken on March 2, 2014, 10 years ago.
- This photo caused an uproar on the Internet. Times have changed.
Ellen DeGeneres’ Oscar selfie that went viral online This was taken 10 years ago and wow, it has aged badly.
If your memory needs a jog: While hosting the 86th Academy Awards, the then-ubiquitous TV personality gathered a host of Hollywood A-listers and snapped a selfie midway through the ceremony.
This picture stars Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Julia Roberts, Lupita Nyong’o, her The photo, starring younger brother Junior, Channing Tatum, Kevin Spacey and a barely visible Jared Leto, went viral after DeGeneres posted it. The tweet was posted to Twitter and had been retweeted more than 2 million times by the end of the ceremony.
For a while, it was the most retweeted photo ever. Then there’s the laziest imitation of a selfie. It was later discovered that although Samsung denied offering the selfie phone and spent $20 million to sponsor the awards that year, it was an elaborate marketing stunt designed to put its new phone in the most prominent position.
The revelation that the moment wasn’t spontaneous wasn’t the only reason feelings about the photo soured.Of course, when we learned that what we thought was an impromptu moment of well-intentioned A-list fun was a Smart form of product placement. But a decade on, many of the stars in the photos have either become persona non grata, irrelevant or, simply put, uncool.
Let’s start with the obvious: Kevin Spacey appears in the middle, and despite not being in any awards season movies, he somehow found a seat close enough to the stage to jump in the back for a selfie.
His illustrious career came to an abrupt end in 2017 after allegations of inappropriate behavior. Although he was exonerated and cleared of assault charges in trials in the US and UK, he still faced backlash whenever he was deplatformed.
And then there’s DeGeneres herself. Her long-running NBC talk show sparked intense scrutiny in 2020 after being accused by guests and staffers of a toxic studio culture filled with fear and intimidation. The show was canceled a year later, and DeGeneres has not appeared in a regular television role since.
Meanwhile, things have gotten messier since the photo was taken when former Hollywood power couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie traveled to Splitville to finalize their divorce in 2019. The pair have been locked in a bitter legal battle since early 2022 over their shared French wine estate and custody battle over their children, with Jolie accusing Pitt of abusive behavior.
what else? Jared Leto may or may not be an aspiring cult leader, but Jennifer Lawrence has the backlash of public opinion and admittedly did little wrong except overexposure.
We saw this happening to Bradley Cooper in real time as he entered the Oscar campaign for “The Master.” The actor-director is arguably the uncoolest person in Hollywood right now, thanks to his serious effort to make an Oscar-worthy film, and it seems like every time he opens his mouth, He made things worse.
There’s not much to say about Channing Tatum, Angelina Jolie, Julia Roberts, et al., except when was the last time you saw them in a movie that excited you?
If Oscar selfies are taken again at this year’s ceremony, I can’t imagine any of these stars showing up.