worked with DeGeneres at the rehearsal to introduce the Galaxy Note III.
Since Ellen was an iPhone user, her muscle memory wasn’t attuned to the
Galaxy, and she needed training from the White Glove team.
After a good deal of troubleshooting, Mayo called Pendleton two days
before the event with good news: They’d secured the use of a Samsung
phone in the ceremony itself—not only in the commercials. Samsung would
provide Ellen with two Galaxy Notes. They’d alternate as needed.
The social media was the market’s democratizing force. Oscars viewers
who had once passively watched from their couches could, after Ellen’s
tweet, pick up their smartphones and join the online conversation. It was an
amplified form of the field’s most powerful tool, word of mouth.
The catch? The spontaneity meant fewer guarantees, and Mayo wasn’t
sure how it would play out. The bad news: This was either going to work
well or flop, maybe even get Amber fired. She’d done all she could. Now
all she needed was luck.
—
A DAY BEFORE THE Oscars, Ellen didn’t look like her sprightly self as she
finalized matters backstage. She sat in a conference room with the writers,
her eyes baggy, her face slightly haggard, as they reviewed jokes and gags
for the ceremony. Usually her tone was carefree and jovial, but when they
arrived at the moment in the script for the selfie, she got quiet.
“I really hope that everyone jumps in this picture,” she said. “I keep
thinking, I mean, that it will be amazing if everyone really gets in.”
At a table scattered with pencils, papers, to-go coffee cups, and 7-
Eleven Super Big Gulps, the team gazed wearily at the script and its yellow
highlights, scratching chins and scribbling notes, their stares somber and
intense, running their hands through their hair.
There could be no mistake tomorrow, with so many people watching.
Amid the grind of planning, DeGeneres occasionally jolted the room awake
with a joke or two.
“And he is from Somalia? Sommelier! Who’s the wine captain now?”
she shouted, a planned dig at Best Supporting Actor nominee Barkhad
Abdi, who was in Captain Phillips. His character, a Somali pirate, had
seized Tom Hanks’s ship and asked, “Who’s the captain now?” The room
lightened and chuckled. Things were looking good for the Oscars selfie.