i just want to know whether theres a plugin that allows me to be seen as 'online' to some of my contacts and 'offline' or 'away' etc to other contacts. In other words i want to be able to show different statuses to different contacts, is there a plugin which can do that ? or is this possible ? (for msn beta 7)

no it is not possible to have multi status's. however messenger discovery, has a feature thats called offline talking. it works by blocking the contact, so they see you as offline and can't start talkin to you (as you appear offline to them) but they are still one your contact list with you been able to talk to them.]

http://www.messengerdiscovery.com

p.s. if you do decide to use MD i would advise not installing they sponsor, as it is  very hard to get rid of. as uninstalling MD doesn't uninstall the sponsor