The pizza delivery guy who found unexpected fame feeding the hungry A-listers at the Oscars has been duly rewarded, with a hefty tip from host Ellen DeGeneres. Edgar Martirosyan – who delivered the stack of treats from Big Mama’s and Papa’s Pizzeria to the Dolby Theatre on Sunday night – pocketed $1,000 (£600) when he made a guest appearance on her talk show on Monday, made up of money from the stars he served as well as DeGeneres herself. And the Russian-born worker, who owns the pizzeria on Sunset Boulevard, admitted on her talk show that he had no idea he would end up serving pizza to the likes of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Lawrence, thinking the delivery was for the backstage crew. ‘I was shocked. I didn’t know it was going to be something like this. It was really crazy,’ Martirosyan said – adding that meeting Julia Roberts was the highlight of his surreal experience. ‘She was my like woman in dreams. I was always watching her movies back in Moscow. So it was something crazy to me to deliver her pizza.’ He’s not the only one to benefit from the publicity, with Big Mama’s and Papa’s being swamped with customers since its Oscars appearance. ‘All of our locations are crazy busy right now,’ co-owner Ararat Agakhanyan told the Los Angeles Times. ‘We had no idea that our pizzas were going to be on TV.’ Kevin Spacey, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Meryl Streep and Harrison Ford were among the other celebrities who tucked in to the pizza during the ceremony. DeGeneres was later seen collecting the tip money from the audience, making a beeline for Harvey Weinstein when Sandra Bullock claimed she had no cash.
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