Ellen incites Marsh madness via satellite

It all started with a Tweet. Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore tweeted his student followers Wednesday morning telling them to ‘Get ready ‘- rare experience and prizes tomorrow at BU!’ ??

The ‘rare experience’ turned out to be a segment for ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show.’??

DeGeneres broadcasted via satellite to over 300 Boston University students in Marsh Plaza, offering them an opportunity to win tickets to Sunday’s playoff game at Fenway Park along with other cool prizes. ??

‘Look at all those people!’ DeGeneres said to her live studio audience about the BU crowd. ??

Aaron Pinkston, field associate producer of the show for the past three seasons, acted as the on-site correspondent in Marsh Plaza. ?

Pinkston said the idea to film at BU came from several staff members at the show who are BU alums. The show producers collaborated with BU spokesman Colin Riley to plan the event. ??

‘Ellen was very excited about filming at BU,’ Pinkston said. ??

At about 7 p.m., the crowd of students, some of whom said they had camped out for over two hours, were given their first clue through DeGeneres’ twitter update.?

‘People of Boston! Go to Marsh Chapel right NOW. The first 20 people to bring Aaron a pair of red socks, is in the running for a huge prize,’ she said. ??

Students dashed all over campus on a quest to find red socks. Some, like School of Management junior Taylor Holzer, said they resorted to spray-painting their socks red. ??

In honor of Joe Perry, guitarist for Aerosmith and DeGeneres’ guest in the episode, DeGeneres instructed the first 20 competitors to dress up as their favorite song by the band. ??

In the next 15 minutes, elevators, pink-clad students, and several boys dressed in drag arrived at Marsh Plaza. ??

CAS sophomore Jenny Zeheb covered her face in scarves and wore Aviators in tribute to ‘I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.’??

‘I just made myself look kind of like an idiot to be on TV,’ Zehab said. ??

Others, such as College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Helen Banach, said they dressed as ‘Dude Looks Like a Lady’ because it was ‘easy and quick to do.’ ??

‘I look like a slob anyway,’ Banach said.??

Though he did not make the cut for the first 20 competitors, School of Engineering junior Mike Cataldo dressed up anyway.?

‘I was originally going to dress up as Raggedy Anne for ‘Rag Doll,’ but instead I grabbed some of my girl friends’ clothes and became ‘Dude Looks Like a Lady,” he said.??

DeGeneres, impressed with Cataldo’s effort, awarded him with a Wii.

‘Oh, that’s so good I hate to waste that,’ she said about his costume. ??

The winner, however, was Maria Lorenzo, a BU graduate student who dressed as ‘Love in an Elevator’ by turning a cardboard box into an elevator, complete with an opening door and drawn heart.? ???

Some students said they were disappointed not to see DeGeneres herself in Boston.

‘I thought she was going to pull up at Marsh Plaza, but turns out she’s filming from LA,’ CAS senior Valerie Delrocco said. ??

But others said they came out because they enjoy DeGeneres’sshow.

‘I came because I simply love Ellen,’ School of Education freshman Stephanie Dolce said. ??

Pinkston said the event was so successful, the show might return to BU. ??

‘It was one of the best ones yet,’ he said. ‘The crowd was great and everyone showed up.’