Business
My Red Carpet Quest: A Two-Year Search for Steve
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Steve Olive was my white whale.
I had been trying for two years to write a profile of Mr. Olive, the co-founder of Event Carpet Pros, the California-based company responsible for custom-making the colorful, though not always red, carpets for thousands of movie premieres, the Golden Globes, the Grammy Awards, the Super Bowl and, since 1997, the Academy Awards.
I learned about Mr. Olive in 2023, while reporting an article about why the organizers of the Oscars were rolling out a champagne-colored carpet that year. My editor, Katie Van Syckle, and I had found the Event Carpet Pros website and we took turns calling the listed number in an effort to reach someone. Finally, Katie connected with Mr. Olive, and briefly interviewed him.
But this mysterious, matter-of-fact, low-key man at the heart of the glitz and glamour of awards season stuck in my mind. I wanted to know more about him. How does one become a rug guy? What had he wanted to be when he grew up? Had he ever attended an award show himself?
Last year, when the Oscars returned to a classic red carpet, Katie and I again agreed that I should pursue a story on Mr. Olive, but he was hesitant. But this year, with the encouragement of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, he agreed. It was three weeks before the ceremony.
Mission: Steve, as I termed it, had officially begun.
I sent a barrage of frantic texts and placed several calls to Brooke Blumberg, a publicist for the academy, trying to nail down when the carpet, which was manufactured at a mill in Dalton, Ga., would arrive at the company’s warehouse in La Mirada, Calif., a city in Los Angeles County.
My goal was to be there when the approximately 30 rolls, each weighing 630 pounds, were unloaded in the Event Carpet Pros parking lot, from a truck that had been driven about 35 hours, from Dalton. The scene, I imagined, would be akin to the arrival of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in New York City.
Despite my persistent overtures, Ms. Blumberg informed me that I had missed my chance. The truck had arrived at the warehouse the afternoon before I was planning to fly to Los Angeles.
“Oh darn!” I texted her. “We can hopefully get the install, though!” (The week before the ceremony, the 50,000-square-foot carpet is rolled into place by a crew of 20-some workers on Hollywood Boulevard.)
My next priority was meeting Mr. Olive at his office. But he had the flu, so I was told the interview might need to happen over a video call. Still, Katie and I thought I should go to California to capture the scene. And I wanted to meet his co-workers, as well as talk to the person who orders the red carpet for the Oscars from Mr. Olive each year.
When I finally made the decision to get on a plane, there was a chance that I might have neither the opportunity to talk to Mr. Olive in person nor to see the red carpet. But I bought a seat on a Wednesday afternoon flight and hoped for the best.
On my first day in La Mirada, I scouted out the Event Carpet Pros warehouse, a 36,000-square-foot white structure tucked among palm trees. Then, on Thursday night, I interviewed Joe Lewis, a producer for the Oscars who has ordered the awards show’s red carpet from Mr. Olive for the past 16 years.
On Friday morning, face mask on as a precaution, I visited Mr. Olive — now energetic, his bout with the flu evidently a distant memory — at his office inside the warehouse.
I’d had an idea of him in my head for two years, and I was curious to see if it matched the man. At 6-foot-2, bald and dressed entirely in black, he was somehow exactly as I’d imagined. He was, I learned, a former bodyguard for Mötley Crüe.
He had gotten into the red carpet business in 1992, with his brother-in-law, who installed tents around the country. I met Mr. Olive’s 26-year-old son, Nick, and his co-workers, all of whom told me the same thing: This is a man who doesn’t want, or need, the spotlight; he’s just happy making other people happy.
“I’m not good at this,” said Mr. Olive, as he awkwardly tried to follow the instructions of our photographer, Jennelle Fong, at what must have been his first-ever photo shoot, while standing on the Oscars red carpet.
A bit media shy, it took him some time to open up. And he was never really keen to discuss himself or his days as a bodyguard, for some of the hottest ’80s bands. “I’m not interesting,” he told me.
But I observed him becoming more comfortable as the talk turned to his lifeblood: carpets. He loved talking about his favorite collaborations over the years — all meticulously documented on the company’s Instagram account, which he created in 2013 — and sharing photos of his dog, Olive.
“You’ll make me look good, right?” he asked an hour and a half later, as we parted ways. I promised to send him a copy of the article after it was published.
Over the weekend, it was a frantic scramble to write my article. I wanted to capture not just Mr. Olive’s personality, but also the scope and scale of the modern “red carpet,” not just as a platform for fashion, but as a personal branding opportunity for celebrities. I wanted people to understand why what Mr. Olive was doing mattered.
I submitted my article on Monday morning; Ms. Fong photographed the installation of the red carpet on Hollywood Boulevard on Tuesday; and we had the story ready to go for Wednesday afternoon, when the carpet would be rolled out.
I didn’t get my Rockefeller Center Christmas tree arrival moment. But I witnessed something even better: One unassuming man, who neither wanted nor needed recognition, sharing his joy over his decades-long passion.
Paramount Skydance Chief Executive David Ellison made his case directly to theater owners Thursday, pledging to release a minimum of 30 films a year from the combined Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery company during a speech at the CinemaCon trade convention in Las Vegas.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison said in a brief on-stage speech, adding that Paramount has already nearly doubled its film lineup for this year with 15 planned releases, up from eight in 2025.
He also said all films will remain in theaters exclusively for 45 days, starting Thursday. Films will then go to streaming platforms in 90 days. The amount of time that films stay in theaters — known as windowing — has been a controversial topic for theater owners, as some studios reduced that period during the pandemic. Theater operators have said the shortened window has trained audiences to wait to watch films at home and cuts into theater revenues.
“I have dedicated the last 20 years of my life to elevating and preserving film,” said Ellison, clad in a dark jacket and shirt with blue jeans. “And at Paramount, we want to tell even more great stories on the big screen — stories that make people think, laugh, dream, wonder and feel — and we want to share them with as broad an audience as possible.”
Ellison’s CinemaCon appearance comes as more than 1,000 Hollywood actors and creatives have signed a letter opposing Paramount’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Supporters of the letter have said the deal would reduce competition in the industry and “further consolidate an already concentrated media landscape.”
Some theater operators have also questioned whether the combined company could achieve its goal of releasing 30 films a year, particularly after the cost cuts that are expected after the merger closes.
“People can speculate all they want — but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment,” Ellison said. “And we’ll show you we mean it.”
The speech came after a star-studded video directed by “Wicked: For Good” director Jon M. Chu that was shot on the Paramount lot on Melrose Avenue and showcased directors and actors including Issa Rae, Will Smith, Chris Pratt, James Cameron and Timothée Chalamet that are working with the company.
The video closed with “Top Gun” actor Tom Cruise perched atop the Paramount water tower.
“As you saw, the Paramount lot is alive again,” Ellison said after the video. “And we could not be more excited.”
new video loaded: Why Your Paycheck Feels Smaller
By Ben Casselman, Nour Idriss, Sutton Raphael and Stephanie Swart
April 18, 2026
Nearly two years after actor Alec Baldwin was cleared of criminal charges in the “Rust” movie shooting death, a long simmering civil negligence case is inching toward a trial this fall.
On Friday, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge denied a summary judgment motion requested by the film producers Rust Movie Productions LLC, as well as actor-producer Baldwin and his firm El Dorado Pictures to dismiss the case.
During a hearing, Superior Court Judge Maurice Leiter set an Oct. 12 trial date.
The negligence suit was brought more than four years ago by Serge Svetnoy, who served as the chief lighting technician on the problem-plagued western film. Svetnoy was close friends with cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and held her in his arms as she lay dying on the floor of the New Mexico movie set. Baldwin’s firearm had discharged, launching a .45 caliber bullet, which struck and killed her.
The Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe, N.M. in 2021.
(Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)
Svetnoy was the first crew member of the ill-fated western to bring a lawsuit against the producers, alleging they were negligent in Hutchins’ October 2021 death. He maintains he has suffered trauma in the years since. In addition to negligence, his lawsuit also accuses the producers of intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Prosecutors dropped criminal charges against Baldwin, who has long maintained he was not responsible for Hutchins’ death.
“We are pleased with the Court’s decision denying the motions for summary judgment filed by Rust Movie Productions and Mr. Baldwin,” lawyers Gary Dordick and John Upton, who represent Svetnoy, said in a statement following the hearing. “He looks forward to finally having his day in court on this long-pending matter.”
The judge denied the defendants’ request to dismiss the negligence, emotional distress and punitive damages claims. One count directed at Baldwin, alleging assault, was dropped.
Svetnoy has said the bullet whizzed past his head and “narrowly missed him,” according to the gaffer’s suit.
Attorneys representing Baldwin and the producers were not immediately available for comment.
Svetnoy and Hutchins had been friends for more than five years and worked together on nine film productions. Both were immigrants from Ukraine, and they spent holidays together with their families.
On Oct. 21, 2021, he was helping prepare for an afternoon of filming in a wooden church on Bonanza Creek Ranch. Hutchins was conversing with Baldwin to set up a camera angle that Hutchins wanted to depict: a close-up image of the barrel of Baldwin’s revolver.
The day had been chaotic because Hutchins’ union camera crew had walked off the set to protest the lack of nearby housing and previous alleged safety violations with the firearms on the set.
Instead of postponing filming to resolve the labor dispute, producers pushed forward, crew members alleged.
New Mexico prosecutors prevailed in a criminal case against the armorer, Hannah Gutierrez, in March 2024. She served more than a year in a state women’s prison for her involuntary manslaughter conviction before being released last year.
Baldwin faced a similar charge, but the case against him unraveled spectacularly.
On the second day of his July 2024 trial, his criminal defense attorneys — Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro — presented evidence that prosecutors and sheriff’s deputies withheld evidence that may have helped his defense . The judge was furious, setting Baldwin free.
Variety first reported on Friday’s court action.
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