About 4,500 attend Ellen DeGeneres’ Oscar event

By Eli Murray

Superheroes and villains, princesses and gladiators, fish and gorillas all braved the below freezing weather and gusty winds to gather on the Quad and take part in a promotion hosted by Ellen DeGeneres on Monday afternoon.

Ellen asked attendees via Twitter to arrive at 3 p.m. dressed as their favorite movie characters for a promotion inspired by the upcoming Oscars. A live conversation with Ellen via satellite to a television set up on the Quad began at around 4:30 p.m. 

A few dressed-up people, chosen by Ellen’s staff, were invited to show off their costumes and asked to recite a line from the film their costume was inspired by.

A video of the event will be included in Wednesday’s episode of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” 

Tad Logullo, sophomore in Engineering, won the competition with his rendition of Heath Ledger’s Joker. His prize: a ticket to Ellen’s studio in Burbank, Calif., for her post-Oscars show on Monday, March 3.

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“The makeup took me about 30 minutes (to do), so I skipped class for it,” Logullo said.

Logullo wasn’t the only student who skipped class to attend the event.

Zade Hameed, sophomore in Engineering, said he skipped ECE 110 to attend the promotion.

“It’s pretty much, if you want to be an electrical engineer, you need to go to that class. You can’t miss any lectures,” he said. “I was going to be here for five minutes and leave, then I got stuck.”

It was nearly impossible not to get stuck in the crowd, as nearly 4,500 people huddled together on the Quad at the peak of the event, according to the production team. Some people travelled as far as two hours to attend.

While not everyone could win a trip to California, a handful of other costume-wearers won prizes such as a laptop, a PlayStation, an Xbox, a tablet and a couple $500 American Express gift cards.

Eli can be reached at [email protected] and @eli_mur.