James Corden found himself on the receiving end of a wave of backlash this week. Restaurateur Keith McNally called out the Late Late Show host on Instagram for allegedly being “abusive” towards servers during multiple visits to his eating establishment. With this, the business owner ultimately decided to ban or “86” Corden from a New York-based eatery that he owns. Now, however, McNally has revealed that Corden reached out to apologize.
Keith McNally banned James Corden from his Balthazar restaurant on Monday and announced the news on social media. However, less than 24 hours after McNally made his declaration, he returned to Instagram to say that Corden had reached out to him and “apologized profusely.” McNally then gave his take on the apology and reveal whether he and Corden or now on good terms:
James Corden just called me and apologized profusely. Having fucked up myself more than most people, I strongly believe in second chances. So if James Corden lets me host his Late Late Show for 9 months, I’ll immediately rescind his ban from Balthazar. No, of course not. But....anyone magnanimous enough to apologize to a deadbeat layabout like me (and my staff) doesn’t deserve to be banned from anywhere. Especially Balthazar. So Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Corden, Jimmy Corden. All is Forgiven.
This a major change-up from the sentiments Keith McNally shared in his initial Instagram message about the talk show host. In that post, he started by calling the star a “gifted comedian,” before referring to him as “a tiny Cretin of a man.” The restaurant owner also went as far as to say that the Cats alum “the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago.” Additionally, McNally detailed two alleged visits that the actor made to his establishment. The first, which he said occurred in June, purportedly saw the CBS host being “extremely nasty” to the Balthazar manager after making note of a hair in proximity of his food.
Another situation reportedly occurred earlier in October when both James Corden and his wife were visiting the place for a meal. According to Keith McNally, Corden became irritated with the manner in which his wife’s meal was presented. He also claimed that things got even worse when the server brought out a fresh meal for Mrs. Corden:
Mr. Corden's wife ordered an egg yolk omelette with gruyere cheese and salad. A few minutes after they received the food, James called their server, M. K. and told her there was a little bit of egg white mixed with the egg yolk. M. K. informed the floor manager, G. The kitchen remade the dish but unfortunately sent it with home fries instead of salad. That's when James Corden began yelling like crazy to the server: ‘You can't do your job! You can't do your job! Maybe I should go into the kitchen and cook the omelette myself!’
Despite all of that, it sounds like everything has been smoothed over at this point. The restauranteur’s more recent post seems to indicate that he understands the value of second chances and cutting someone slack. However, over the years, the Internet hasn’t quite felt the same when it comes to the British TV presenter.
Twitter has roasted James Corden for a number of reasons during his late-night TV stint. At one time, he was called out over claims that he doesn’t actually drive on Carpool Karaoke. He also faced much criticism in 2021 over his “Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts” segment, which was deemed insensitive. There was even a petition to keep Corden from being cast in the Wicked film adaptation that’s currently in production. Despite all of that, Corden still gets steady work and will star in Amazon Prime Video’s Mammals. You can see the trailer down below:
One can only speculate as to whether these kinds of criticisms will continue after the host departs The Late Late Show in 2023. (He attributes his exit to a desire to “go out on top.”) If anything though, Keith McNally will seemingly be rooting for him moving forward.
The Late Late Show with James Corden airs weeknights at 12:37 a.m. ET as part of the 2022 TV schedule. Those who are Paramount+ subscription-holders can also stream episodes on the platform.
