Barb and Ian Norton stayed up late, touching faces (6)
I believe the answer is:
insult
'barb' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'ian norton stayed up late touching faces' is the wordplay.
'faces' says to take the initial letters (I've seen 'face of' mean this).
The first letters of 'ian norton stayed up late touching' is 'INSULT'.
'and' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for insult that I've seen before include "Remark intended to hurt or humiliate" , "Show contempt to" , "Treat with contempt" , "Abusive remark" , "Affront, offend" .)