'FIJI water girl' steals the show on Golden Globe Awards red carpet

ByDanny Clemens KABC logo
Monday, January 14, 2019
'FIJI water girl' steals the show at Golden Globes red carpet
The Golden Globes were crawling with celebrities, but it was one otherwise unknown woman handing out bottles of water who was perhaps the most visible.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- The Golden Globe Awards were crawling with A-listers, but for some viewers at home, it was one relatively unknown woman handing out bottles of water who stole the show ahead of Hollywood's biggest party.

The woman appears to be a promotional model for FIJI, the award show's official water sponsor. Wearing a blue gown, the brunette dubbed the 'FIJI water girl' on social media appears in dozens of preshow photos taken by major news agencies, oftentimes perfectly framed in photos behind celebrities like Constance Wu, Julianne Moore, Judith Light and Darren Criss.

In a handful of shots, the woman is staring directly at the camera and appears to be posing, leading some online to question whether she was intentionally photobombing Hollywood's big names or if she was simply manning a post assigned by the show's organizers.

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The so-called ‘FIJI water girl’ appears at the 76th Annual Golden Globe Awards on January 6, 2019, at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, California.
Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for FIJI Water

Based on promotional photos from the red carpet, the woman is one of at least four FIJI models wearing similar blue dresses, all apparently tasked with handing out bottles of FIJI water to parched celebrities.

The other three women, though, didn't have the fortune of appearing alongside nearly as many A-listers as their newly famous colleague, who seems to have been stationed at the beginning of the step-and-repeat area where celebrities pose for photographers and speak with reporters on their way into the show at the Beverly Hilton.

Some media outlets have identified the woman as Los Angeles model Kelleth Cuthbert. An Instagram account belonging to Cuthbert featured photos and videos posted from the red carpet, and Cuthbert wrote on Facebook late Sunday that it had been "the strangest day of my life."

The Wonderful Company, FIJI's parent company, responded to a request for comment about its model's newfound fame:

"The award for Best Supporting Actress in (literally) Every Picture goes to FIJI Water Girl! FIJI Water Girl is a Los Angeles-based model and FIJI Water Brand Ambassador.
For more than a decade, FIJI Water has proudly maintained a presence at high-profile events, including major award shows, international film festivals and movie premieres. As the official water sponsor of the Golden Globes, FIJI Water, along with its FIJI Brand Ambassadors, hydrated guests on the red carpet and during the star-studded show. FIJI Water will continue to hydrate more of Hollywood this coming awards season."

The company said in a tweet that they were "so glad everyone is talking about our water," adding that they could sense the woman was "right behind us, isn't she?"

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