Rose is a rose is a rose

tito media via FAMOUS

Well the Cat, as they say, is out of the bag. Last night in Sydney Oz gossip magazine FAMOUS Tweeted two watermarked paparazzi shots of Chic Management superstar Catherine McNeil and MTV Australia VJ Ruby Rose Langenheim, kissing. On closer inspection, on Tito Media's website, the shots had been taken on May 23rd at the Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles. Even if FAMOUS had purchased and taken the shots off the market, it’s unlikely they would have spoiled their own exclusive. It's more likely the magazine did a spoiler for a story that is due to run in a Sunday tabloid or a competitor on Monday (update 1/06: the shots appear in a double-page spread in this week's NW). Langenheim sure does get around. Just three weeks ago in Sydney she was photographed kissing another top Chic Management model, Myf Shepherd.

In the intervening hours these new images have made their way to a number of online outlets. Here is what looks to be the complete set on McNeil's TFS thread.

And most, not surprisingly, are marvelling at the complex inter-model relationship geometry.

Fashionologie asks:

“Are two models involved in a love triangle?”

While ONTD_Fashinfags poster dcbaabcd notes:

“is the world ready for a freja, catherine, myf, and some other australian lesbian love quadrilateral? I'M NOT”.

As frockwriter has previously reported, initially in October, there has been much speculation over a romantic liaison between McNeil and Danish supermodel Freja Beha Erichsen - who ranks immediately below McNeil as the world number nine working model on go-to industry website models.com.

And as we mentioned on Tuesday, Langenheim came runnerup to McNeil in the 2003 Girlfriend Model Search competition and was once repped by Chic.

In April last year Langenheim described McNeil to The Daily Telegraph as:

“one of the best-looking women in the world… She deserves to be a supermodel"

Langenheim declined to comment however when the reporter asked the question if the pair had previously "locked lips".

At the time of 2002 Girlfriend Model Search competition, Langenheim and McNeil were 16 and 13 respectively.

Suggesting that the pair may today be, at the very least, the best of mates, earlier today Langenheim told her 11,000+ Twitter Followers:

“Happy birthday to my amazing Kitty Cat! <3”

According to her DOB information on several websites, McNeil celebrates her 20th birthday today.

As it emerges, Langenheim was in Los Angeles attending several business meetings and revealed to her Twitter followers that she has "big news" about work, which is currently under wraps - and may be US-focussed.

But while Langenheim appears to be a very active user of social media, according to several former Facebook friends of McNeil, McNeil's Facebook profile mysteriously vanished overnight last year.

Coincidentally, this was around the same time that rumours first started percolating about McNeil's friendship with Freja Beha Erichsen.

McNeil's Facebook account appears to have been recently reinstated, with a much tighter circle of 117 friends so far.

Femmes fatales

3-way kiss/terry richardson


Should leading Australian model agency Chic Management perhaps think about renaming itself Sapphic Management? Frockwriter surely can’t be the only one starting to wonder. On February 21st, speaking about the recent friendship between Chic's latest superstar Myf Shepherd and Dutch supermod Nimue Smit – and following reports about “McBeha”, the much-discussed romantic hookup between an even bigger Chic Management girl, Catherine McNeil and Denmark’s Freja Beha Erichsen - frockwriter quipped, do we have a new power couple on our hands? We were joking at the time. But as many may already be aware, much was made of Shepherd’s female dalliances earlier this month during RAFW – her fairly public dalliances.

Firstly, it was reported that Shepherd had been holding hands with one woman at the sass & bide party.

Several days later, Shepherd was papped - and apparently from the footpath, which of course is a public thoroughfare - whilst apparently kissing MTV Australia VJ Ruby Rose Langenheim at the appropriately-titled Kings Cross restaurant, Jimmy Liks.

The shot was published in one Australian gossip magazine and the series of images, owned by Tito Media, has since been widely circulated online.

Interestingly, Langenheim - who is openly gay - was once also repped by, you guessed it, Chic Management.

Langenheim came runnerup in the 2003 Girlfriend Model Search competition, beaten by... Catherine McNeil.

Sadly frockwriter hears that McBeha may either be on the rocks – or no more.

But that hasn't put a stop to the buzz about the duo from within the top echelons of the modelling industry.

Wayne Sterling is the co-founder of the high profile, New York-based online model resource models.com (which ranks McNeil and Erichsen the world's number 8 and 9 working models, respectively).

On April 13th, on his personal blog The Imagist, Sterling teased readers with the following snippet, which has prompted quite some speculation:

“TI wants to know which Modeling Super-Couple has splintered yet once again with one half of the duo successfully macking the other beauty's best mate on the set of that luxury ad campaign last week...Expect a punch-up at the wedding...”

Coincidentally, the Gucci Fall/Winter 2009/2010 campaign was shot the previous week in Europe.

And as revealed by frockwriter, the campaign features two Australians: Myf Shepherd and Abbey-Lee Kershaw. They were photographed for the campaign alongside several other high profile models, including Freja Beha Erichsen.

Both Shepherd and Kershaw are repped by Chic Management. However we have it on good authority that only one of them is best friends with McNeil.

And it’s not Shepherd.