I suppose since you were on deadline that it is already out of your hands. Going with "red-carpet kind of nights" definitely would be OK. The reason I said you could get by without a hyphen was two-fold:
First, how often to hyphenate compound modifiers is a little bit up to the writer. There are some phrases that really need hyphenation to avoid confusion (small-business owner). While others are used so often and are clear enough that you can get by without one (day care center). Some people like to hyphenate every compound modifier, even if the phrase is clear without one.Then there are those who never hyphenate unless they absolutely must. I am closer to the camp that hyphenates liberally, but I still let some phrases go without hyphenation if they are sufficiently clear. And, I thought your example was clear enough and didn't need one.
Second, I brought your sentence up to a fellow newspaper editor before I made my post. He also didn't think there needed to be a hyphen, but he is a part of the camp that never hyphenates unless they can't get around it. So, I kind of knew where he would be on the issue.
Hope that clarifies things a little.
