He Says He Invented The Oscar Selfie

Lest he never step down from his reign as King Of The Selfie. Our favorite philosophizer-cum-essayist-cum-selfie-taker-cum-actor (oh yeah, that!) has now exacerbated all of our expectations. In an interview on Today, James Franco claimed that he invented the Oscar selfie, not Ellen. Since Franco has publicly defended the art of the selfie in the New York Times, causing us to reevaluate all of the things that we think and feel about #selfies (not to mention, his Instagram is a hotbed of all things selfie), it seemed viable for Savannah Guthrie to ask for his thoughts on the record-breaking Oscars selfie that Ellen posted to Twitter.

"I saw that selfie," he said, "it was a good one."

But Franco's been taking Oscar selfies long before Ellen was — to much less success, though. Remember his failed attempt at hosting the big event with Anne Hathaway back in 2011? He was selfie-ing all over the place then and getting criticized for it. He said, "I took a few selfies, I took some videos and selfies at my Oscars and I got criticized for it [...] Now she's getting a lot of attention for hers. I don't get it. I don't get it."

Let's pontificate over this for a minute. 2011, though it was only a mere 3 years ago, was a different time for technology. Selfies were far less ubiquitous, and hey, some of us didn't even have smartphones (raises hand slowly). In fact, at the time, Instagram was a baby; the super-popular photo sharing app had been around for less than five months at the time of the Oscars. With increased popularity and conspicuousness, what was once a platform for all things critical is now a mainstream way to communicate on the Internet. Not to mention, Franco's got a personality that easily ignites criticism and snarkiness. All of that philosophizing begs for it.

Franco chose to blame who was in his selfies, by saying "I guess maybe I didn't include Meryl Streep and Bradley Cooper in my Oscar selfies, so maybe that's why it went wrong."

Right.

NYC residents can catch more of Franco live and in real human form in the Broadway production Of Mice And Men , in which he'll dig deep into his acting craft alongside Chris O'Dowd. Audience members should definitely wait at the stage door after...and try for an original post-show selfie. You know Franco would not object.