Noel Clarke left women he thought spoke to Guardian ‘fearful and in tears’

The actor Noel Clarke made calls to some of the women he thought were cooperating with the Guardian prior to the publication of its investigation into his behaviour, leaving them “shaken, fearful and in tears”, the high court in London has heard.The Guardian’s head of investigations, Paul Lewis, was giving evidence in defence of Clarke’s libel claim against the news publisher over allegations of sexual misconduct.Detailing the steps taken during the investigation into allegations against the former Doctor Who star, Lewis said in his witness statement that he had become aware that Clarke and his business partner Jason Maza had been making calls to women they thought had spoken to the Guardian’s reporters.The women had found the approaches upsetting and some had been left “shaken, fearful and in tears”, Lewis said.In the calls, Clarke had shown a willingness to apologise to some of his alleged sexual misconduct victims if they did not speak to the Guardian about him, the high court was told

‘I’d been singing the wrong word for 30 years’: Deacon Blue on how they made Dignity

‘It’s become a sort of folk song. It’s played at weddings and funerals. Dundee United play it when we win. I’ve met people who’ve told me, “I was a worker for the council for 20 years” – just like the guy in the song’I was a teacher in Glasgow but I wanted to start a band and write songs that meant something to people. Dignity began life during a holiday in Crete in 1985

Take two Van Goghs daily: the growing popularity of museum prescriptions

It was about six years ago that Nathalie Bondil heard of doctors prescribing outside the boundaries of traditional medicine, scribbling out orders to walk, cycle or swim, or sending their patients into nature.As she made her way through the halls of Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, however, she was certain that its collection of Inuit art or paintings by Claude Monet or Camille Pissarro, could also be just what the doctor ordered.“The museum is such a special place; it’s an escape from our stressful, daily life,” said Bondil, who at the time was the museum’s general director. “And art is something that is interesting to the brain.”Her resolve gave rise to a pilot programme billed as a world first – in which thousands of doctors in Montreal were given free passes to prescribe to patients in the hopes of alleviating everything from depression and anxiety to diabetes and high blood pressure

Art can help remind US and Europe of special relationship, says director of reopening Frick Collection

Can masterpieces of European art help smooth over the fissures between the old world and the new? It’s a hope, say officials at the Frick Collection in New York, which reopens next month after a five-year, $220m (£170m) renovation.Axel Rüger, the director of the museum, which began with a trove of European masterpieces including Rembrandt and Vermeer, hopes that its art could be a reminder of US-European ties in these turbulent political times.“We are approaching a time when culture and education are not seen as priorities,” said Xavier Salomon, the Frick’s deputy director, at a preview of the renovated museum last week. “It’s a huge mistake, in my opinion, and I hope a place like this gives people a chance to think about the role of culture in our lives.”The Frick, which started with the collection of Henry Clay Frick, the Robber Baron-era industrialist, has long been an oasis from the intensity of the city – a home in a grand style but domestic in overall feel

On my radar: George the Poet’s cultural highlights

The author and podcast host on a favourite restaurant, adventures in scholastic research for his PhD and the second series of Squid GameBorn George Mpanga in north-west London in 1991, George the Poet is a spoken-word artist, author and podcast host. He studied politics, psychology and sociology at King’s College, Cambridge and is now doing a PhD at UCL about the economic and cultural potential of black music. Aged 22 he signed with Island Records and released an EP before stepping away from the music industry. His award-winning podcast, Have You Heard George’s Podcast?, launched in 2018. Last year he published Track Record: Me, Music and the War on Blackness

Bridget Christie on brain fog, flirting, and why she won’t be taking a lover: ‘My heart is full. I am open to it, but I’m not looking for it’

She’s getting divorced and facing an empty nest, but the standup and creator of The Change insists she’s having the time of her lifeIs it a pigeon-hole, Bridget Christie asked to be photographed in, or is it a box? Either way, it’s some pretty trenchant visual messaging: whatever society wants to do with middle-aged women, Christie is done with it.It was also a chance for the 53-year-old to dress up as Kate Bush, recreating her 1978 shoot by Gered Mankowitz. And Christie loves dressing up. She did a whole show dressed as Charles II. The actor, writer and comedian is playful: she has way more than the usual number of funny facial expressions; her chat is peppered with silly, surreal ­diversions