If you somehow, although I"m completely at a loss of how you could, missed the fact that an internal beta build of Windows Live Messenger 8.5 recently leaked onto the Internet, I"m not going to bother bringing you up to speed. Go call your ISP and demand a refund: there"s no way you could have missed it with your Internet working correctly.
The real news here is not the fact there is yet another update to the UI of WLM - instead, it is interesting to see what lies inside the leaked build. When comparing Other version information under Internal Name, version 8.1 has a value of "Install_Messenger.exe" while version 8.5 has "WLSuite.exe". Now, coupled with the fact a new program has appeared on Microsoft Connect with the short description of "Windows Live beta for Messenger, Mail, and Writer", it would be quite ludicrous to condemn this as just another rumour. It is very possible Microsoft plans to test a suite of Windows Live software composed of Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Mail and Windows Live Writer. I doubt, however, that Microsoft won"t release the three applications in seperate installers along with the (bloated?) Windows Live Suite.