JenniferH

Update of the Ian/Nina reference post. inevitable, can you edit the OP to link to THIS POST. Thanks.

New stuff is updated with this:

I collected all of this information because of continued discussion over 'are they or aren't they?' The 'they' being, of course, Ian Somerhalder and Nina Dobrev. Personally, I think they are together. I also think that they are determined to keep it under wraps. However, they aren't going to stop spending time together; they just aren't going to be all over each other when they can be seen in public. The most couply moments we've seen/heard about were at times when there wasn't an expectation of paparazzi and people around them. The rumors began to really fly late May and once they returned from the promotional tour overseas in early June, we definitely saw a difference in how they talked/acted around each other.

They are much less touchy-feely than they ever were before. Yet, it's obvious they aren't suddenly not close -- see: the always being around each other. The only reason I can think of why they would suddenly decide to halt the touchy-feelyness (especially when it's something that they both do with everyone ... Ian, obviously to an insane degree, LOL!) and that's that they are trying to not give more fire to the rumors.

There is also the way they talk about each other. The original post of the Nian thread on Nina's board has a quote from her saying that Ian is like her brother, and at Comic-Con in 2009, Ian said she's like his little sister. Both of those quotes are a year or so old. They rarely talk about each other like that now (the only recent instance is Nina dragging it out as a pat answer when asked how it's like working with Paul and Ian in the Oct/Nov 2010 GL interview). Still, Ian is ALWAYS (and I mean ALWAYS!) bringing up when he gets to make-out with Nina. Every single time that episode 13 ("Children of the Damned") or episode 22 ("Founder's Day") comes up, Ian always comments on the fact that they got to make out. And barely an interview goes by where he doesn't remark on how hot and/or sexy Nina (as Katherine) is. You don't talk about someone you consider your little sister that way. You just do not.

Executive producers Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec essentially stated in an Entertainment Weekly interview* about the season premiere that Nina's been waiting for some hot and heavy action with Ian (and, boy, does she ever get it!**). Again, you're not excited to get hot and heavy with someone you consider your brother. You think it's funny, weird, part of the job, etc. I say this because there have been couples I've had in the past, or ones I've just read about, who talk about the brother/sister thing and despite their onscreen chemistry/heat, it's also obvious based on how they always talk about each other, those scenes, etc. that they DO think of each other as brother/sister. Nina/Ian do NOT talk about each other that way. Uh huh. No way.

* The Kevin and Julie interview portion:
**

And then there are the looks. For goodness' sake, look at how they are looking at each other (the photos below from August and July 2010):



And here's a post* about an Ian moment in a 2010 Comic-Con interview; he's talking about how "Nina Dobrev" -- not Elena, mind you, but NINA! -- is the reason that Elena brings out Damon's humanity, and the goofy smile on his face. Seriously, if you watch the video, his whole demeanor changes. He gets all soft and gooey and goofy. Yes, yes, I'm totally biased, I admit that freely, but boy looks absolutely in love there.

* It's on the the Nina and Ian Livejournal community. You do have to be a member to see it, but here is the video (the question is at 3:04, the smile is at 3:16-3:19):



I also wanted to point out something else. In a Tyra Banks interview that Ian did shortly after the show premiered in 2009, he was asked if he had a girlfriend (and, of course, he was still dating Meghan at the time). The second the word 'girlfriend' came out of Tyra's mouth, I kid you not, Ian got the same goofy, gooey smile on his face, and nodded yes. I was struck by how similar the smile was then to his smile in the video above when talking about Nina. And it *was* a very distinctive smile. (Alas, I can't find that part of the interview online anywhere.)

Now back at Comic-Con 2010, watch Nina's interview with Kristin (from E! online) and at about 2:19, Kristin is talking about the Damon and Katherine kiss from "Founder's Day" and his inevitable broken heart when he finds out the truth. She says "look at him," gesturing towards Ian. Nina looks over, and she gets this near-dreamy smile on her face for a moment.



And then there is all of this "evidence" ...

- On set pictures number one. GroundedSouls posted these images from the filming of "Founder's Day" in her photobucket account. Looks like Ian and Nina went off to have some private time. Sweet!



If you want to see the bigger versions of the above photos, here they be: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

- At the CW Upfronts, there was a lovely interview with Kristin from E! Online with the trio that had a few, erm, interesting moments. Watch the video with the following in mind. The interview starts with Ian's hand low around her waist, and then falling a bit lower to basically rest on her rear. And then at 0:04, he actually *pats* her rear. His hand moves up a bit more again, and then at 0:09, his hands moves even lower down onto her rear. For reals. And then perhaps realizing it, he then pulls his hand away completely ... and then puts it in his pocket, LOL!

Later in the interview, he winds up with his hand on her shoulder/back. Finally, at 3:51, even though Paul is talking, Nina looks up at Ian, then looks down as if catching herself at which point he looks down at her and it's just ... ooh! Definitely a moment, one of several very couply ones in this interview. I mean, they're doing an interview and Ian is standing through the first part of it with his hand around her waist (and, ahem, lower). Definitely couple-ish!

.

- They went to one of the Lakers/Suns Finals game together (no other co-stars around).



- They went shopping together in Venice Beach.



- The intimate hand-hold brush at the HMV London signing. Watch at 0:52-0:56 in the video, and there's a still-shot of the 0:55 moment below that.





- The window bunching up at their London hotel window. (Yup, that's Ian coming up behind her in the first shot, LOL!)



- The little scrunchie finger brush on Nina's upper waist, near her breast that Brenda swears was her 'lightbulb' moment at 0:20 from photo-taking at the Monte Carlo 50th Film Festival.



- The sitting next to one another during lunch in Monte Carlo, while Paul was sitting the next table over.



- The pics with Jorge Garcia at a party in Monte Carlo where he described Nina as just "Ian's friend," not "Ian's co-star," or even "Ian's co-star and friend/friend and co-star," just "Ian's friend." Uh huh. Oh, and, yeah, there are no pics of Paul anywhere, it appears as if it was just Nina with Ian at the party.



- The walking off alone together on the beach in Monte Carlo.



- Ian taking pics of Nina in Monte Carlo.



- Back in the US, in the midst of set-up/discussion for the CNN telethon for the oil spill, Ian randomly popped up in LA at the Women's Milk Muscle Fitness Retreat -- the only male celeb there -- where Nina was.



- Speaking of the telethon. Number of related tweets about the telethon from non-Nina Dobrev Vampire Diaries related Twitter-accounts (cast/crew)? Four. Number of related tweets about the telethon from Nina Dobrev? Eight. Candice Accola (two tweets - one retweeting Nina, the other retweeting Ryan Seacrest's announcement of Bing matching donated funds), Malese Jow (one - urging people to tune and support the telethon), Julie Plec (one - retweeting Ryan Seacrest's announcement of Bing matching donated funds). Nina retweeted Ian giving the time/date of the telethon on the 17th, retweeted Ian talking about the telethon on the 19th and 21st, which was the day of. Also, on that day, she tweeted:

Finally, she then retweeted Ryan Seacrest's tweet about retweeting to get Bing to donate to the telethon, and then Seacrest's tweet about the amount raised. Now, I'm sure she would have tweeted something regardless, but the fact that she tweeted and retweeted so much during this (twice the amount of all of the other TVD cast/crew combined), including giving updates to when Ian would be at the Telethon and when he was actually there at the telethon .... Well, that reads like very girlfriend-type behavior to me. Make of it what you will.

- Nina tweeting about fun activities she was doing with friends (including their names) in Australia. Then Nina tweeted that she was going scuba-diving on the Great Barrier Reef. No mention of who with. Then it came out that Ian was also scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Finally at the Hub event, both Ian and Paul talked about Nina and Ian scuba-diving together on the GBR. Thanks to pics in OK magazine, we now know that Ian and Nina did go with her friend, Ash, but still of everyone else there, the two of them just went with one of her best friends. The underwater pic is accompanied by a blurb from Nina about using her underwater camera (included in the image) for the first time there, and considering Ian's penchant for taking photos of himself with fans, I'd bet he probably took the picture, LOL!



- During the question/answer session from the Australian Hub Convention, Ian told a story about driving through the Las Vegas to get to his Vampire Diaries audition. We've heard him tell this story before. The difference is that in the past he referred to his girlfriend doing the driving. At this event, he referred to her (Meghan) as his ex. This confirms what an OhNoTheyDidnt (popular celebrity/gossip livejournal community) member -- who works on The Vampire Diaries set -- said about Ian and his girlfriend breaking up months ago. (Note, the last time there was any reference to Meghan as his girlfriend was in mid-March, and we hadn't seen Ian with her since February 28th.)

- Also at the Australian Hub Convention, there was a fan sighting of Nina snuggling against Ian, while he pulled his jacket (that he was still wearing) around her when he went outside to have a smoke. Alas, there are no pictures of this because the person who posted about it said she just happened to come upon them by accident. They were not in public sight, but in a wind tunnel or something, and the person was going to take a photo but decided not to because (a) it looked like such a private moment, and (b) the security guards standing around, LOL!

- At Comic-Con 2010, when given the number one question fans most wanted asked ("Do you have a girlfriend?") Ian, presumably single now since his long-time girlfriend is now an ex, dithered and and went about in random circles about "complicated situations" in response. That comes up at 5:19 in the video below.



- Nina and Ian took the same flights to/from Comic-Con 2010, staying at the same hotel, left the hotel together, with Ian pulling not only his, but Nina's luggage to the car (see photo illustration below!). And yet in the one picture where you can see both of them, they came across as complete strangers. Ah, the obvious of trying to not be obvious.



RE: The luggage. Obviously, this isn't any sort of proof, Ian's a sweetheart. Mia Kirshner said in an interview: "He’s a gentleman. He carried my bag at the airport, he drove me back to the hotel." But I'm mentioning this because once again it was just Ian and Nina (and only the two of them out of all of the cast there) at that hotel, leaving at that time ... when Ian was pulling her bag for her (including the girly bag on top). Really, it's just one other thing on top of everything else.

- Some more on-set pics of the two of them taking a break together (episode three, "Bad Moon Rising"). Again, obviously, not a big thing ... it could be a friend thing, but it's just yet another bit to add to the growing list.



- Could be purely coincidental, but on July 21st, Ian tweeted about his empty apartment in Georgia. Then on July 31st, Nina tweeted pics from an Ikea where she's at. Ten days between the two, and one could certainly have nothing to do with the other but considering their ultra busy schedules, something tells me that ten days isn't too extreme for furniture shopping. Just sayin'.

- Nina and Ian left LA together after the Teen Choice Awards. Yes, yes, Nina's cousin Jeny was with them, but I admit I have to wonder if she was there to chill the Nina/Ian rumors. If so, that attempt failed miserably as there were countless articles (I mean, TONS!) about Nina and Ian leaving together with no other cast mates in sight (both Paul Wesley and Katarina Graham were also at the TCAs), bringing up the rumors of the two dating. In fact, even though Ian kissed both Jeny and Nina on the cheek, some media outlets did entire write-ups on Ian kissing Nina, LOL! I know there were some who were wondering about Ian and Jeny, but, to me, it makes sense that he'd be talking to her. After all, she is Nina's cousin -- and we already know how important family is to both Nina and Ian. Plus, she works with Nina, has been on the set working a bit, she's been at other events, photo shoots with Nina, etc. so obviously Ian knows her. (Oh, in the pic where he's looking off to his left, he's having a conversation with the paparazzi following them. Oh, Ian, LOL!)



- On August 16th there were these pair of tweets from the two:

Going even further, pistocy on the Nian LiveJournal community dug a bit and found out this information: "I checked out the website and clicked on the about us page and sure enough one of the tour guides is named Michaela Constantine. I remembered from Nina's wiki page that her full name is Nina Constantinova Dobreva and the name sounded similar. I googled Michaela's name and found this and this and sure enough her full name is Michaela Constantine Dobrev. She's based in Toronto and I'm positive she's Nina's mother."

Now going one step beyond that, our own Weena pointed out that once upon a time, Ian posted something to promote Multiple Sarcasm. The producer of that movie happened to be Meghan's mother. Meghan, as in Ian's ex-girlfriend. Uh huh.

- Ah, Emmy weekend confusion. So much fun! First, Ian tweeted:

This led to much speculation that Ian was going to be attending the Emmys for Lost if nothing else. The following day, a picture of an Emmy dressing room popped up that included Nina's name, so much rejoicing was had by the Nian community because we figured that both Nina and Ian were attending the Emmys. YAY! Further confirming Nina at the Emmys, she tweeted a picture of her and Kathy Griffin at a pre-Emmy party. All was good. Then came this odd tweet from Ian:

Odd mostly for two reasons:

1) Why would Ian have flown across the country very early Saturday morning, only to leave about 36 hours later ... without attending the Emmys?

2) Ian's not only been in the business for a loooong time, he's been on an Emmy-friendly TV show and thus is quite, quite aware of how awards shows work. One does not just randomly show up the weekend of an awards show and say: "Hey, I wanna present!" So, in my opinion, that tweet sounded like a (rather lame) attempt to explain being in LA without spilling that he flew in to be with Nina.

But was he with Nina? That's the question. And, now it's time to thank Kathy Griffin! Remember the pic that Nina tweeted of her and Kathy? Well, lookee what Kathy tweeted a few days later ...



Same dress Kathy's wearing there. Uh huh. Nina and Ian were both at the same pre-Emmy party. And once more for the road ... uh huh!

Post-leaving LA tweet, Ian also tweeted about Nina:

Say it with me ... Awww!

Yet, the Emmy saga is still not complete. @JosephKapsch from Zap@it tweeted:

Said person was tweeted about Ian tweeting about leaving LA already, and there was confusion following about Carina Mackenzie (@CadlyMack, an LA Times reporter who'd been on the set during the filming of the premiere) thinking they both would be there. A bit later, these tweets were posted:

This was followed by a tweet from @CadlyMack ...

It was confirmed later that neither Ian nor Nina were at the party, although, she did make a brief appearance at the official post-Emmy party, the Governor's Ball. Judging from those tweets, I do think that it's fairly obvious they were both expected to attend.

Finally, Kevin Williamson tweeted about Nina's Emmy performance:

To which Ian replied with:
Which was followed up with ...

And once more for the road ... Awww!

- Nina tweeted on September 11th:

Pet adoptions is a big cause for Ian -- one he's been pushing for years. In fact, Ian himself tweeted pretty much the same tweet on July 31st:

- Nina tweeted her followers to vote for her friend Margaret on September 13, 2010. Lookee who retweeted it for her? (Okay, to be fair, so did Katarina Graham, but still ....)

- Small thing, but still aww-worthy. On stage, presenting at the Scream Awards, cameras caught this lovely little hand-hold between Ian and Nina, as well as this look 'o love shining from Nina straight at Ian.



- Also, there was crazy fan/paparrazzi video footage outside the Scream Awards, and you can see Nina and Ian together, talking, laughing and even a possible, surreptitious hand-hold (now that statement makes me feel stalkery, LOL!).



- Ian was interviewed by PeoplePets.com and said this:

First of all, hmm, when did he get a third cat? As far as we know, he has two cats (Moke and Thursday) ... now he could have gotten a third one and just hasn't talked about it, but it's also interesting that he had these awesome backstories for the first two cats, and yet the third one only got ... "from Canada." Where, coincidentally, Nina is from. Oh, and also coincidentally, Nina has a cat. Just one. So his two and her one would make ... yeah, three. And one of those three cats is from Canada. Yeah, make of it what you will. I know what I've made!

- Regarding the "three cats," Ian's father said elsewhere that Ian was cat-watching for a co-star. Okay, so it's either a different co-star other than Nina, but I'm thinking that Ian's dad is spinning Ian's quote because, as far as I know, Ian doesn't have other co-stars who have cats (from Canada), only Nina. And the thing is that Ian gave this interview at the Scream Awards, and that timing is ... curious because since we've been kept pretty up-to-date on where Nina and Ian are based on tweets, appearances, filming, etc., other than the two days AFTER the Scream Awards, the only time that Nina hasn't been in Georgia for long enough to cat-watch, Ian was gone too. So, yeah.

- Not much different than the Peoplepets.com interview, but in People's Sexiest Man Alive issue, Ian had this to say: "I have three animals in the bed, and there's fur everywhere in the sheets." So the three cats is sticking with us, I see.

- In an interview during the Hot Topic appearance in Miami, Ian and Paul were asked:

Quoting teachergrl at the Nina/Ian Community who nailed its inclusion in this post perfectly: "In the past Ian has always been pretty open about whether he was dating someone or not. He usually gave a direct 'yes' or 'no,' but here he tiptoes around answering the question which pretty much means he 'is' in a relationship and doesn't want to say it. It's basically another non-admission from him."

- Ian tweeted on Halloween:

And then the next day, Nina tweeted the picture:

If Nina had just tweeted the pic without Ian's previous tweet about pics forthcoming, it wouldn't speak of anything couple-y, I don't think. But the fact that IAN tweeted that pics were forthcoming and then NINA was the one to tweet said pic? That's just so very couple-y.

- Nina's mom (Twitter handle: PaintAWorld) is now following Ian on Twitter (originally the only one from the cast, aside from Nina, of course. After a set visit she did add a couple more TVD people to her following list, but Ian was the third person added after Nina (her daughter, duh, LOL!) and a friend/business partner ... and this was BEFORE she visited the set. Subsequently, Ian retweeted her a few days later and is now following her as well. Aww.

- @krmaclothing (aka Nina's friend from LA) tweeted Ian.

Which begs the question how did Ian get the shirt, since he obviously didn't try it on. Oh, right, wasn't Nina in LA for a few extra days last week? Hmmm.... Uh huh!

- Ian tweeted about the write-in possibility for Nina in the Best Dramatic Actress category for the People Choice Awards:

Now, he was a little behind the time as voting had already closed, but it was still awful sweet of him. And, notice how he didn't mention anyone else who could be written in despite the fact that the actual link he put up had info on voting that includes links to write in, yes, Nina Dobrev, but also Paul Wesley. Yet Ian only mentioned Nina. Plus we got that emphatic "now!" Hee!

- Ian tweeted a pic about America's addiction with sugar while at a gas station. The photo app style on that particular photo looked amazingly similar (as in, totally the same photo app) as the pic that Nina tweeted of her and Paul Sommers (dressed as Winnie the Pooh) from the Halloween party. See?



Take a look at the full-size images (Gas station | Nina and Winnie the Pooh)and you can see that they are the same app, and as far as we know Ian and Nina do have different phones, so considering that she tweeted the picture of him as Paul from the Halloween party, it's a pretty safe assumption that he took the pic of her and Paul Sommers, and she tweeted it from his phone. Awww!

- Nina was on the Jimmy Fallon show on November 4th. Ian made sure to let us know, and then added his own commentary (from personal experience perhaps?)

- Nina's mom tweeted this about her daughter:
Very sweet, yes, but what does that have to do with Nina and Ian? Well, Ian decided of all tweets in the world to retweet ... he'd retweet that one. Yeah.

- Ian tweeted this at 9:14 pm on November 7, 2010.
Then at 10:01, November 7, 2010, Nina's mother tweeted:
We could chalk it up to coincidence, until you add this bit of information. In a Vampire Diaries thread on the popular celebrity news/gossip livejournal community OhNoTheyDidn't, this was randomly posted by irlyneedanamee who doesn't even watch the show, but is familiar enough with Ian to recognize him.
She was asked by another poster if he went by himself and she responded with:
Uh huh! So thanks to irlyneedanamee, it's pretty sure that Ian went to the Dali Exhibition in Atlanta with Nina's mother and Nina. Plus, it looks like it was just the three of them, no other cast mates.

- Ian's dad had this to say about Nina recently on another message board:
Say it with me ... awww!

- There's an article in the french mag One about fan encounters, one girl got to party with the guests attending the Monte Carlo tv festival last summer.
Apparently Jessica Szohr liked her and invited her to Jimmy's, a famous night club in Monaco. She got to meet Paul, Nina and Ian. Here's what she said about her encounter:
And here's a picture of the fan with the two:



- Someone who attended the Bash on the Bayou charity event that Ian attended posted this bit of info on their tumblr.
Obviously, just hearsay, but this is the first time that Ian has flat-out stated he has a girlfriend since the ex-comment in Australia, and as has been pointed out, it simply HAS to be Nina as there is no other female he's been around, not to mention the way he talks about her, they hang out, etc.

- Ian tweeted this on November 15, 2010:
Nina retweeted and responded to him a few hours later:
The interesting thing is that while I was about thirty minutes away from Atlanta at that time, I felt no earthquake. Others living in Atlanta on the Nina/Ian comm mentioned not feeling an earthquake. And, checking the great wide web there were absolutely no recorded earthquakes in or around Georgia on November 15, 2010. Yeah. Make of it what you will.

- When Ian was on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, we got this from Nina:
And her mom tweeted:
And I do think it's worth noting ... Nina did *not* mention Paul Wesley's Rachael Ray appearance a few days before. AHAH!


- From a French interview (translated into English): - After his LA visit for the Jay Leno interview, there was this twitter exchange:



- Other castmembers/crew did tweet about his birthday, but Nina was the only one who mentioned his foundation (and link) in her b-day tweet:
- Nina and Ian were seen out with other castmembers (Candice Accola, David Anders and Matt Davis) dancing in Atlanta, and it was tweeted about by a fan:


It was followed up with this information about Nina and Ian:
- Some speculated (okay, I started the ball rolling, LOL!) that Ian and Nina spent the Christmas holidays together. That speculation was fueled by the following. Both Ian and Nina posted pics of themselves skiing. So, they both went skiing. (Yes, yes, Christmas time, snow, vacation, LOTS of people are skiing ... but it's those lovely coincidences again at play here, LOL!) Nina was in the US with family in an undisclosed state as opposed to Canada where the rest of her family lives. Ian mentioned he was going to Idaho for the holidays. And as stated, we didn't know what state Nina was in. However, there are some potential clues ... that could be totally nothing! But Nina shared this image of the mountains she's at a few days ago and Ian shared this one a day later. They looked alike to me, and I thought they could be the same mountain range. However, sylvia posted a shot of Sun Valley, Idaho (yes, IDAHO!) and comparing Nina's pic and the one that Sylvia found of Sun Valley in Idaho, they sure look like the exact same mountain formation to me. BIG-TIME!

Then a bit later, we got confirmation that Nina's pic was definitely from Sun Valley. Someone emailed Dan Heed from sunvalleyonline.com with that pic and asked if it was Sun Valley. His response:
Then, Nina posted this picture ...



I know NOTHING about phone apps or anything, BUT, I recognized the style from this post because of the bit about Ian's picture of the sugar in America and Nina's pic of herself with Paul Sommers/Winnie the Pooh as being the same app used. See?



Anyhoo, this pic that Nina posted from her Christmas vacation DEFINITELY looks like that picture is the same app as the two referenced above (just without the flash used). Now, obviously, this doesn't mean much as anyone from Nina's family COULD have an iPhone (but that they would use the EXACT same configuration of stylse applicable?). Anyhoo, I thought it was something that should be pointed out.

So based on the above information, many of us decided that yes, indeed, Ian and Nina (and families) had spent the Christmas holidays together. Well, in mid-January, a picture popped up on a tumblr account of -- you guessed it! -- Nina and Ian posing with a family friend who was friends with litterbocks. And when and where was this picture taken? Oh, just Christmas Eve in IDAHO!. The owner of that tumblr has asked that the picture be taken down wherever it was posted (as requested by their managers). So no pic, but the request in and of itself is pretty telling.

Uh huh.

- So what about New Years? Well, we don't have the same kind of concrete proof, but there are certainly bits of information that point to Ian and Nina spending that together as well, but in Mexico. There was an online Mexican interview with Nina that translated contained this:
And then, lo and behold, Ian tweeted this after New Year's.
And I say again: UH HUH!

- Nina did an interview with Canadian magazine, Flare, and a portion of the interview was posted online, including her answer on her best date:
Now naturally many of us jumped to the conclusion that these were both about Ian (LOL!), but we had reason! We know that Ian's mom is a massage therapist (masseuse? Check!), he's into wine (glass of wine waiting for her? Check!) he loves to cook (cooking dinner for her? Check!), and working on the show with her, he'd know what kind of day she had on The Vampire Diaries (no, she didn't confirm it was TVD, but considering her past tv/film work and the description of her day, it sure sounds like one of those double-duty Katherine/Elena days). And the flying out to meet her sounded like Emmys.

And THEN! we got this interview snippet from Ian in Cosmopolitan's "Cosmo’s Fun Fearless Males of 2011" --
Okay, so maybe it wasn't about the Emmys, LOL! Still, I don't know about you all, but dang, do those answers sound quite similar? Definitely makes you go hmmm.......

- After a post-2011 Golden Globes party, Nina was walking to her car (after talking to/signing stuff for a bunch of pappz) when one of them offered to help her walk down the wet steps (girl was wearing 7-inch heels!). She accepted his offer and as he was leading her down, he said "Just don't tell Ian I'm doing this." Small thing, but it rather leads credence to the possibility that the two of them dating is a known "secret."

- Ian and Nina were spotted at LAX together on January 23, 2011.



Click for bigger versions of the pics -- 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

There are a few more pics of them separately at the source, where the text reads:
Hee! "The couple." Hee! SO NOT JUST US!

Also, it was pointed out that the luggage that Nina is pulling is the same luggage that we've seen Ian use for the past couple of years. Here's one of the shots of Ian with that particular luggage from February 15 of 2010, compared to a close-up of Nina with the luggage from this LAX sighting.



(Click on the individual shots to see them bigger: Ian | Nina

Finally, a couple of reports that have absolutely no proof or verification, but they were put out there so I'm including them.

- Someone -- possibly quite unreliable, but the information came out when most thought that Ian was still dating Meghan, and of course, we now know that they were no longer together at that time -- posted elsewhere that Nina was seen staying the night at Ian's Santa Monica home when they were in California.

- This was tweeted by @yvetteava to @popsugar:
More information popped up about this later when Livian tweeted @yvetteava:
Her response:
Lastly, here are some random reports that have popped up (two in unrelated Nian-threads, but rather just coming out of discussion regarding the cast filming around Atlanta):

- Posted by Brianne 3 months ago on Examiner.com:

- Posted by Anonymous August 9, 2010 1:24 on x17online (in the comments from article with the LAX pics (as seen above) with Nina, Ian and her cousin, Jeny).

- Posted by Lauren, October 18, 2010 -- who lives in Atlanta -- on skinnycurvy.com (in the comments section on an article about LBD (little black dresses) that Nina and other celebs having been wearing recently, Nina at the Scream Awards).

- One of the posters on the Nian LJ comm had a little tidbit to add: "My roommate is from Toronto, and she's friends with the guy who plays Riley on Degrassi and another guy who was on the show when Nina was. My roommate and I were watching TVD together one night, and I hadn't told her about how I love Nina or Ian together or that I think they're dating, but she all of a sudden said that her friend who knows Nina told her that she's dating Ian."

This was posted in mid-November on Fanpop:
Phew!

So, yeah, with all of that? I do think they are a couple. And I think that thinking they are not requires disregarding a buttload of what has happened in the last four months. I know there are some who question the why of them being so less obvious towards each other now or if they are dating, why even bother to deny it. That makes perfect sense to me. Couples in Hollywood keep things quiet all the time. Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer of True Blood-- who are married now -- kept their relationship a secret (including from cast/crew) for EIGHT MONTHS before they went public. Janet Jackson was married for a number of years before that went public. Because of the scrutiny, backlash, intrusion, etc., it happens all the time. It's Hollywood.

There's also the question of why Ian is more vocal about Nina than she is about him. Again, that makes perfect sense to me. She can't single Ian out if they are trying to hide their relationship. If she does anything Ian-related the rumors start up all over again, and it's lapped up right away. Even when Ian does it, some stuff is stirred, but since she's the ONLY female co-star he regularly, consistently interacts with, it can slide. Prior to their likely relationship, Nina tweeted about/to Ian all the time. The fact that she's not now very much despite the fact that they are obviously still very close is quite telling. She's trying to hide the relationship.

Two actors working on a tv show together can (and it has for others) have a huge effect on their jobs. One really has to be careful. Most celebrities are VERY wary about their personal life becoming fodder for the public, especially in this day and age. Again, Ian CAN because she's the only female co-star he works with regularly and consistently. Period. Nina works with Paul Wesley, Matt Davis, Steven R. McQueen as well as Ian on a fairly regular basis. Therefore, were she to single out Ian, it would be very, very obvious and stir up even more gossip.

That's all I have for now, but I will continue to update as more stuff happens. If you're still not a believer , I guess we'll just have to wait until Ian and Nina go public.