No matter what critics say about it or how many viewers watched it, Ellen DeGeneres's Oscar hosting stint is already one for the record books.
In a positively inspired bit, the Oscar host took what was instantly the best selfie of all time (or at least the most star-studded one). Less than 40 minutes later, the photo broke the record for the most retweeted selfie ever.
Crowded in the photo with Ellen was an unfathomable roster of A-list celebs: Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Kevin Spacey, Channing Tatum, Jared Leto, Bradley Cooper, and Lupita Nyong'o. So many celebrities crammed into the frame that Ellen had to have Cooper take the photo. (That guy you don't recognize? That's Lupita's brother.) The Oscar nominee did a solid job, too--he managed to get everyone in the frame, which considering I can't take a selfie of myself with my eye open and entire face in the shot, was pretty impressive.
The epic selfie needed more than 780,063 retweets to eclipse the iconic victory photo, "four more years,"tweeted by Barack Obama in November 2012. It got more than that in just about 35 minutes. (By the time of this posting, it already have more than 1.25 million RTs.)
At about 11 pm EST, Ellen informed her photo co-stars on stage that "we made history," that the photo had broken the retweet record, and said that the photo crashed Twitter. (Though we didn't notice that it did.)
You decide whose expression was best. I'm rather partial to Julia Roberts look of delirious glee mixed with incredulousness that the whole nonsense was even happening and Kevin Spacey's wily, sort of Muppet-looking grin. Brad Pitt, even in an impromptu cell phone photo, manages to look like Adonis on earth. Really, though, the best expression is Ellen's in the middle, a face that says, "Yep. Nailed it." Indeed.