Was Ellen DeGeneres' Oscar celeb 'selfie' premeditated phone promotion stunt?

Speculations are rife that Ellen DeGeneres' epic celebrity filled selfie at the 86th Annual Academy Awards was a stunt to promote a mobile phone.

The phone in the Oscar host's hand, which was a Samsung, not an iPhone, alerted people to the fact this was not a random injection of fun, but rather a ploy to please the mobile company that was one of the major sponsors of the event, News.com.au reported.

She had also revealed on Twitter that she handed out Samsung phones to every viewer at her talk show, further arousing suspicions of collaboration with the brand.

DeGeneres had wandered into the crowd during the award ceremony and gathered stars like Meryl Streep, Bradley Cooper and Brad Pitt to snap a picture, which later broke the record of being the most tweeted pic.