Brit on the side for Bloom?

Shots of Bloom and Erin McCabe whispering and stroking each other’s faces emerged just as he and Perry announced they were ‘taking respectful, loving space’ from each other.

The images were taken on Wednesday, the same night as 32-year-old Perry’s Brits performance in London.

Bloom had decided to skip the event in favour of flying straight to Los Angeles from Africa, where he was working for Unicef.

Erin’s father, Les, is boss of the charity Global Green, which threw a pre-Oscars party at Tao in Hollywood.

Fellow guests alleged post-graduate hospitality worker Erin ‘swapped her place card to sit next to the British actor’. Images showed Bloom, 40, massaging the back of her neck as they whispered to each other, while she was seen ‘rubbing Orlando’s ear’.

Bloom and Perry attended Sunday night’s Oscars together, but were very cautious about how they were pictured.

They refused to pose together on the red carpet but did agree to an inside party shot. ‘Katy didn’t spend much time with Orlando,’ said one guest, who said the Lord Of The Rings actor was more interested in chatting to Jennifer Aniston.

‘They got to-gether for a photo, but that was about it.’

Only on Tuesday Bloom appeared to give Perry an emotional goodbye when he posted a picture of himself hugging her dog Butters, writing ‘a mighty heart’.

The pair announced the end of their 12-month romance on Tuesday night with the statement: ‘Before rumours or falsifications get out of hand, we can confirm that Orlando and Katy are taking respectful, loving space at this time.’ Last night, a friend of Bloom told Metro the pictures with Erin had ‘been taken out of context and are being made a story’.

Author: Andrei Harmsworth