The Wall Street Journal says that Ellen DeGeneres' use of a Samsung Galaxy during the Oscar telecast was product placement, paid for by Samsung.
On the question I asked earlier about the audio when Ellen was in the audience: I should have just asked my longtime pal Marc Wielage, who knows more about audio and video than anyone on this planet and maybe a few others. He wrote to me to say…
I believe Ellen had a Sanken COS-11 lav microphone in the same color as her outfit, coupled to a 250mW Lectrosonics transmitter, and they were using special processing to minimize any feedback in the audience speakers. The Dolby Theater has great acoustics, which help a lot. Ellen's mic picked up well enough that you can still hear somebody talking about 3 feet away, but not much further than that. No extra microphones were used.
That's pretty standard for award show stuff. Most likely, it would've sounded better if she had used a handheld directional mic, but they probably did whatever they could to make her comfortable.
BTW, there was a ton of missed mic-cues, mics accidentally left on, mics left up too early, and all kinds of crap. Heck, you could hear Ellen talking to the pizza guy before they came out on stage, which kinda ruined the bit.
There were a lot of audio mistakes but I kinda liked that we heard her talking to the pizza delivery fellow off-stage. I thought it added to the sense that the bit was legit.
The pizza she ordered came from Big Mama's & Papa's Pizzeria, a relatively-new chain in Southern California that has about twenty outlets. Their specialty item is a 36" pizza that's a great conversation topic for parties. I was at a party once where they brought one in — chopped into about fifty rectangular pieces — and I thought it was pretty bad pizza. But that was some time ago and since the chain is growing, I'll bet their pizza isn't always like the one we got that night.
It's interesting that she ordered from them, from a store just far enough away that the delivery person had to drive and brave the traffic around there. The Dolby Theater where the Academy Awards are done is part of the Hollywood and Highland shopping complex. There's a California Pizza Kitchen restaurant there and in the food court, a place called the Hollywood Pizzeria Express…but they were both closed, as was the whole mall, for the day of the Oscars. However, within two blocks, there's Greco's New York Pizza (which is pretty good), Andre's Pizza, Combo's Pizza and Deli, and Stefano's Two Guys From Italy.
The delivery person was a gent named Edgar Martirosyan who owns the shop, and they say he didn't know until Ellen dragged him onstage that the pizzas weren't for the writers or backstage crew and that he'd be going out there. I was suspicious because he was, in manner and dress, exactly what what you'd want in a delivery person if you set up this moment. You wouldn't want him to not be dressed like a pizza delivery person, as most I imagine are not. You'd want him to look kinda dazed and not be someone who'd try to be funny. But I'm willing to buy that they didn't pre-select him and that all was as it appeared.