Joan Rivers’ Daughter Melissa Shades Modern Red Carpet Coverage Before Golden Globes

Joan Rivers’ daughter Melissa Rivers has plenty of thoughts about the current state of red carpet coverage. During an interview with Page Six, published on Sunday, hours before the Golden Globes takes place, Rivers said that the red carpet has “been on life support for quite a while.” She even said that the culture behind the red carpet coverage was in a decline even when her late mother, who was famous for her coverage of celebrities prior to major awards shows, was alive (Joan passed away in 2014).

Rivers explained that the movements such as #MeToo and #AskHerMore helped create the “first big seismic shift” in red carpet coverage. Even though both of those movements, rightly, put necessary conversations to the forefront, these initiatives (and, particularly, #AskHerMore), effectively put an end to one of Joan’s classic red carpet questions — “What are you wearing?” Rivers said that the topic of fashion matters when it comes to these events, especially for the designers, stylists, and assistants who help put together these looks.

“Most of you are being paid to wear this, so show me in your contract where it says you don’t have to mention who it is. They deserve the credit,” she said. “You’re a walking billboard!” Rivers also shared another point of contention that she has with modern-day red carpet coverage — the excitement factor. She said that because some celebrities showcase picture-perfect looks, it’s less exciting for viewers at home to watch their step-and-repeats shots.

“I think one of the things that started to bother [my mother] and bother me when we were doing red carpet coverage, and even just Fashion Police was it got so safe,” Rivers said. “Everybody was being paid by designers to wear their clothes or their jewelry, and you lost a lot of personality. That’s not what it should be about! You want to see that people have actually picked their clothes.” Of course, given that the COVID-19 pandemic still poses a major problem for the United States, many of these events have since gone the virtual route, another factor that plays into what Rivers considers to be a decline in red carpet culture. She said, “With virtual, you’re not gonna have any mishaps, any malfunctions … Which sadly takes a lot of the fun out of it. [Now,] everybody’s gonna be at home with their wind machines, I suppose, making themselves look great. You might as well be looking at a magazine.”