A crew member staples the carpet to the ground in preparation for Sunday's 95th Academy Awards, Wednesday, March 8, 2023, outside the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
By Lindsey Bahr
Many things about the Academy Awards have changed over the years, but for the past six decades there has been at least one constant: The red carpet. The hues have varied over the years, but it has always been some shade of red. Until this year.
On Wednesday outside the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, workers unspooled a champagne-colored carpet as Jimmy Kimmel, who is hosting the 95th Oscars on Sunday, presided over the occasion.
“I think the decision to go with a champagne carpet over a red carpet shows how confident we are that no blood will be shed," Kimmel said.
Jimmy Kimmel, host of Sunday's 95th Academy Awards, addresses the media before the roll out of the carpet for the show, Wednesday, March 8, 2023, outside the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
The decision to change the color came from creative consultants Lisa Love, a longtime Vogue contributor, and Raúl Àvila, the creative director for the glamourous Met Gala in New York.
This year the carpet will be covered, in part to protect the stars and cameras from the weather, but also to help turn the arrivals into an evening event. For Love, there has always been a disconnect between the elegant black tie dress code and the fact that it’s mid-afternoon when people arrive to be photographed in the daylight. With a covered carpet, they could change that.
“We turned a day event into night,” Love told The Associated Press. “It’s evening, even though it’s still 3:00.”
The Oscars red carpet dates back to 1961, the 33rd Academy Awards held at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, when Billy Wilder’s “The Apartment” won best picture, Burt Lancaster and Elizabeth Taylor won the lead acting prizes, and there was still a “juvenile award,” which went to Hayley Mills for “Pollyanna.” It was the first televised ceremony, broadcast on ABC and hosted by Bob Hope. The general public wouldn’t see the red carpet in all its glory on television until 1966, when the Oscars were first broadcast in color.
There wasn’t any debate over the change, Love said. They just knew they had the freedom to break from tradition. They tried some other colors too but they seemed too dark with the covered tent. “We chose this beautiful sienna, saffron color that evokes the sunset, because this is the sunset before the golden hour,” Love said.
Instead they went lighter and Academy CEO Bill Kramer approved.
They weren’t especially worried about upsetting Oscars traditionalists either.
“Somebody’s always got a way to find something wrong with something,” Love said. “This is just a lightness and hopefully people like it. It doesn’t mean that it’s always going to be a champagne colored carpet.”
As for what we should call it? Love said “champagne” and “sand” are apt descriptions, but that there’s no reason to not default to “red carpet” either. It’s more metonym for the glamorous arrivals than a literal description of what everyone is walking on.
The 95th Oscars “red carpet” opens Sunday at 3:30 p.m. Eastern. The ceremony is set to begin at 8 p.m. and will be broadcast live on ABC.
Dana Sussman, deputy executive director at the National Advocates for Pregnant Women, joined Cheddar News to talk about Brittney Poolaw, who was sentenced to four years in state prison for a miscarriage she suffered last year.
A Glassdoor report found mentions of "burnout" in online job reviews have increased by 100 percent over the course of the pandemic. Daniel Zhao, the senior economist for the company, talked to Cheddar about the underlying reasons workers have been expressing themselves about the state of their mental health. "That's really a reflection of the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic has been going on for almost 2 years now, and it's really dragged on," he said. "So workers are increasingly feeling like the lines between their work life and their home life are blurred, and they don't feel like they can get that same balance that they might have been able to get before the pandemic."
Tesla's third-quarter earnings report is expected to beat expectations on both the top and bottom lines amid record-high delivery numbers. The electric vehicle giant hit a record high of 241,000 deliveries - strong numbers amid ongoing global semiconductor and supply chain shortages. This segment is brought to you by Webull. Download the Webull app and start learning, sharing, and investing.
Middle school students from across the country battled it out for a chance at being crowned 'America's Top Scientist.' Each applicant had to submit a video to compete in the '3M Young Scientist Challenge' and describe a unique solution to an everyday problem for the chance to win $25,000. 10 finalists were chosen and after a two-day virtual competition, one walked away with the title. 14-year-old Sarah Park won the award, she joins Cheddar News to talk about her invention Spark Care+.
Netflix’s "Squid Game" has been the buzz of the entertainment world and according to Bloomberg, the series has an estimated value of $900 million to the streaming giant. So far, the film has hit number one in each country Netflix operates in.
Disney has announced that it is reworking the release schedule of its Marvel Cinematic Universe like "Black Panther 2" and "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness." The delays were reportedly attributed to production issues and the theater date selection process amid the pandemic.
The world of sports media continues to be a white-male dominated industry according to the latest Associated Press Sports Editors gender and diversity report card. For the sixth straight release of the report card, the industry received an F for its gender hiring practices. Jen Mueller, a Seattle Seahawks sideline radio reporter and entrepreneur, joined Cheddar's "Between Bells" to talk about some improvements she has witnessed over the span of her career but noted that while change has been evident on some level, much more needs to be done. Jen is also the founder of 'Talk Sporty to Me,' a professional development organization and you can learn more about it by visiting www.talksportytome.com.
