Edgar Martirosyan, the pizza delivery driver from the Oscars, is having his fifteen minutes of fame. By now, you probably know the story. Martirosyan, who works for Big Momma’s and Pappa’s Pizzeria in Los Angeles, thought he would just be delivering the pies to the writers backstage at the Dolby Theater while the 86th Academy Awards ceremony was going on.
However, host Ellen DeGeneres had other plans.
She told Martirosyan to follow her out on stage and suddenly the delivery driver was handing out slices to the biggest A-List talent in all of Hollywood. He even got a little help from the likes of Brad Pitt, Jared Leto, and Keven Spacey. He spoke of the whirlwind moment, “They told me I’m going to deliver pizzas for writers, and then when I went there, Ellen (DeGeneres) came out and told me, ‘Just follow me. When I was going, I realized I’m on the stage, and I just went. … I wasn’t nervous. I was cool. I was shocked. I didn’t know what was going on.”
Now Martirosyan is working the Hollywood circuit. He appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show yesterday, where the host took out Pharrell’s hat which contained the $600 cash that she collected while working the star-studded crowd. Then she threw in an extra $400, to give Martirosyan an even $1,000 tip.
The Moscow native has sat for countless interviews and also appeared on Piers Morgan Tonight on Monday to talk about the experience, “I was just shocked. It was a really great moment. I’m thinking that’s when you say American dream, this is really the American dream.”
The owner, Ararat Agakhanyan, is loving the publicity that his pizzeria is getting on the international stage. TMZ estimates that the pizza joint is getting about $10.8 million in free advertising. The owner told The Los Angeles Times, “All of our locations are crazy busy right now. We had no idea that our pizzas were going to be on TV. We’re ordering supplies like mad, stocking up on cheese, pepperoni, sausage and boxes and shipping them out to the different stores.”
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