TOP BOY star Ashley Walters publicly distanced himself from actor and producer Noel Clarke when allegations emerged about the latter’s behaviour — and now it seems their private relationship is all but over.
“Since this whole thing happened we haven’t been talking,” Walters said, although he added: “We’ve had a few text messages and whatever.”
Walters, right, worked with Clarke, far right, on police procedural Bulletproof as well as drama Top Boy. Last year claims of sexual harassment and bullying emerged against Clarke. He has always denied the allegations, but released a statement saying he was “seeking professional help to... change for the better”.
Walters said of working with Clarke: “It was good to be able to develop a show with him and learn from him.” But he also emphasised his support for the women who had spoken out: “It was a powerful thing that they did and I think it’s going to help convince other women to do the same thing if they need to.” And despite those occasional text messages, he declared to Rolling Stone: “We definitely don’t talk to each other.”
Balls revs up for a long mid-life crisis
ED BALLS has been a dancer, a TV presenter and a food writer after losing his seat as an MP, so what’s next for the former Labour shadow chancellor?
“With mid-life crises you’ve got to keep them going as long as possible,” Balls, right, told The Londoner recently. Provided his wife, Labour shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper, is on board, that is. “Yvette has ruled out sub-Saharan motorbike rides,” Balls sighed. Spoil-sport.
Stage nudity is all in the line of duty
FINDING yourself naked on stage at the National Theatre is a recurring nightmare for some, but it really happened to Line of Duty actor Paul Higgins. He recalls being mid-scene in David Hare’s Murmuring Judges when a colleague “dried up” and “went off stage to check the script”. Higgins was left “on my own with no clothes on,” he tells The Stage. “It must have been 30 seconds or so, but it felt like 20 minutes.” Talk about being left hanging...
‘Apartheid Street’ protest slammed
Israeli Embassy, London. We’ve renamed your street. pic.twitter.com/lI0GrKrGn3
— kristyan benedict (@KreaseChan) March 20, 2022
MINISTER Lord Wolfson has criticised Amnesty International for protesting against Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Lord Wolfson, who works in the justice department, hit out at an “Apartheid Street” sign that went up near the Israeli Embassy in Kensington this weekend. “I don’t recall Amnesty doing this at any other embassy. And there are 167 embassies in London to choose from,” he wrote yesterday.
Amnesty recently released a report arguing Israel’s actions against Palestinians amounted to apartheid. Israel’s foreign minister claimed the report was “divorced from reality”.
Gowns and Pouts in Paris and London
LONDON donned its gladrags on Friday, as designer Harris Reed attended a showcase of his work at the V&A’s Menswear show. Olly Alexander sang, and models showed clothes. Presenter Ria Hebden went to a screening of an Ice Age film at the Ham Yard Hotel yesterday, while across the Channel in Paris, actor Jake Gyllenhaal was at the premiere of his Michael Bay film Ambulance along with model partner Jeanne Cadieu and co-star Eiza González.
SW1A
MATT HANCOCK says he feels “proud to be dyslexic” in a way he never did before. “I kept my dyslexia private for 20 years, fearing it would hold me back,” he revealed today, as a week celebrating neurodiversity began. The former health secretary called for screening to help “unleash the potential” of such conditions.
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ANDY HALDANE, the ex-Bank of England bigwig now working on levelling up, raised eyebrows when a report he co-authored likened Brexit Britain to Renaissance Florence last month. Now he says the point wasn’t to compare the two, but to show that “history contains the recipe book” to “bake the right sort of cake”. Yum.
