Oscars Celebrity Selfie Breaks Retweet Record

Ellen DeGeneres has broken a Twitter record after a picture of her posing with Hollywood celebrities at the Oscars was retweeted more than two million times.

Before hosting the ceremony she vowed to smash the record set by Barack and Michelle Obama after a photograph of them embracing following his re-election in 2012 was retweeted more than 800,000 times.

The picture of DeGeneres surrounded by Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Julia Roberts, Angelina Jolie, Kevin Spacey, Lupita Nyong'o, her brother Peter and Brad Pitt was taken by American Hustle star Bradley Cooper and titled: "If only Bradley's arm was longer. Best photo ever. #oscars."

Within an hour the picture had received 870,000 retweets and had been "favourited" 210,000 times.

"We crashed and broke Twitter. We have made history," DeGeneres told the crowd during the broadcast after the picture went viral.

"See, Meryl, what we did, you and I?"

Twitter had to send out an apology because all of the retweeting disrupted the service for more than 20 minutes.

But the record provoked a backlash from Twitter users who began retweeting Obama's tweet in an attempt to nudge it back to the top spot.

They were not successful and by Monday DeGeneres had received 2.4 million retweets and 1.1 million favourites.

She wasn't the only star enjoying photo-based fun at the 86th Academy Awards.

Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberbatch repeatedly jumped behind U2 while they were having their picture taken on the red carpet outside the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles.

The awards show drew an estimated 43 million viewers, making it the most-watched Oscars in a decade and the most popular entertainment event on television since the Friends finale in 2004.

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