Ellen DeGeneres Hosts Oscars, Selfies Shatter Twitter Records (PHOTO)

By Emma Koonse, Christian Post Reporter Monday, March 03, 2014

Ellen DeGeneres returned to host the Academy Awards for a third time when she managed to wow the crowd and sweep Twitter on Sunday night.

Instead of a song-and-dance opening number, DeGeneres unleashed a humorous monologue that was peppered with mentions of the evening's nominees. Though the talk show host dished up jokes and jabs, DeGeneres' most impressive feat during the Oscars was live-tweeted throughout the entire awards ceremony, including several "selfies."

In fact, the social media site was crashed because of the flurry of activity over one of DeGeneres' selfies that included Brad Pitt, Kevin Spacey, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, among others.

"If only Bradley's arm was longer," DeGeneres wrote along with posting the photo. "Best photo ever. #oscars"

"I've never tweeted before," Meryl Streep exclaimed after Cooper shot the photo from a mobile device, according to E! News.

The post became the most re-tweeted message posted to Twitter of all time, and froze DeGeneres' account. It was shared, or retweeted, more than 2 million times within two hours during the broadcast of the 86th annual Academy Awards. Moreover, DeGeneres' photo surpassed the record set by Barack Obama's "Four More Years" re-election victory photo featuring the President hugging the First Lady. The 2012 photo had been retweeted over 780,000 times.

"We got an email from Twitter and we crashed and broke Twitter," DeGeneres told the crowd. "We have made history."

Meanwhile, DeGeneres' other widely shared posts included a selfie taken with Channing Tatum, another with Lisa Minnelli, and one with Oscar winner Jared Leto.

"So handsome," DeGeneres wrote of the "Dallas Buyers Club" star. "He's on my live show tomorrow. I love @JaredLeto."

At the close of her hosting duties, the comedian thanked her followers as well as her stylists via Twitter.

"Thanks for watching and tweeting! Now I need to meet with my friend, Margarita," she joked. "See you tomorrow for my live show! #Oscars Thank you to Kellen, @hcurriebeauty, @lainireeves and Cameron, who helped me get into that dress."