In a First since 1961, the Oscars Carpet Will Not Be Red

Crew members roll out the carpet outside the Dolby Theatre on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, in Los Angeles in preparation for Sunday's 95th Academy Awards. (AP)
Crew members roll out the carpet outside the Dolby Theatre on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, in Los Angeles in preparation for Sunday's 95th Academy Awards. (AP)
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In a First since 1961, the Oscars Carpet Will Not Be Red

Crew members roll out the carpet outside the Dolby Theatre on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, in Los Angeles in preparation for Sunday's 95th Academy Awards. (AP)
Crew members roll out the carpet outside the Dolby Theatre on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, in Los Angeles in preparation for Sunday's 95th Academy Awards. (AP)

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.

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.



‘Freakier Friday’ Goes Bolder with Family Bonds and Body Swaps 

Lindsay Lohan, left, and Jamie Lee Curtis pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film "Freakier Friday" on Thursday, July 31, 2025, in London. (AP)
Lindsay Lohan, left, and Jamie Lee Curtis pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film "Freakier Friday" on Thursday, July 31, 2025, in London. (AP)
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‘Freakier Friday’ Goes Bolder with Family Bonds and Body Swaps 

Lindsay Lohan, left, and Jamie Lee Curtis pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film "Freakier Friday" on Thursday, July 31, 2025, in London. (AP)
Lindsay Lohan, left, and Jamie Lee Curtis pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film "Freakier Friday" on Thursday, July 31, 2025, in London. (AP)

Stepping into the body of a British teenage girl trying to hide her emotional pain was tricky for actor Jamie Lee Curtis, who reprised her role from the movie “Freaky Friday,” along with Lindsay Lohan, for the sequel “Freakier Friday.”

“We labored to make sure that we came up with tics and behaviors and words that would help you know that we have switched into each other,” Curtis told Reuters, referring to the body switch Tess has with her future step-granddaughter named Lily, played by Sophia Hammons.

Disney's “Freakier Friday,” which arrives in theaters on Friday, continues the story of a dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship that was introduced by Curtis and Lohan in the 2003 movie.

The 2003 comedy film became a cult classic for American millennials, embedded in popular culture.

Twenty-two years after Tess and her daughter Anna Coleman, played by Lohan, had their bodies swapped, Anna now has a daughter and a British soon-to-be stepdaughter.

While navigating a new blended family, Tess and Anna experience an even bigger body swap spell that threatens to tear the future of the family apart.

While “Freaky Friday” had one body swap, “Freakier Friday” takes things to the next level when Anna swaps with her daughter and Tess swaps with her soon-to-be granddaughter.

Things were so confusing during the script table readings that Curtis made everyone wear hats to help them remember with whom their body had been swapped.

“As soon as the switch happened, we put on hats that had the new name so that you could understand,” Curtis said.

However, she noted that later when it was the ensemble of women and girls working on-camera together with less “cooks in the kitchen,” things felt less complicated.

As a mom in both real life and in the film, Lohan found compassion for her character’s parenting journey.

“It was refreshing to play Anna and show her off in a different light, where she's not grumpy and yelling at her mom, and where she can be struggling, trying to manage her daughter and being a mom,” Lohan said.

“Now, bringing that to the role was exciting for me, because it's a role I've never played before. I was able to take things from home and daily life moments and put them to Anna.”

Lohan said it was special to have Curtis' guidance on how to balance real-life mom duties with acting work while they filmed the movie.