James Corden Will “Probably” Discuss Restaurant Ban Brouhaha On Monday’s ‘Late Late Show’
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UPDATE, with McNally response: The Late Late Show host James Corden says he will “probably” talk about his recent restaurant brouhaha on Monday’s show, though he finds the topic “such a silly thing” to discuss.
Calling the controversy “insane” in a New York Times interview, Corden spoke for the first time about being banned – and unbanned – from a ritzy New York eatery after famous restaurateur Keith McNally called out the comic on Instagram for rudely and repeatedly berating waitstaff.
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Corden had agreed to the interview with the Times‘ Dave Itzkoff earlier this month to discuss his new Amazon Prime Video miniseries Mammals and his planned departure next year from late night TV. When the subject of this week’s social media frenzy over his allegedly bad restaurant behavior inevitably came up, Corden seemed alternately perturbed and amenable to addressing.
“I feel so Zen about the whole thing,” Corden said. “Because I think it’s so silly. I just think it’s beneath all of us. It’s beneath you. It’s certainly beneath your publication.”
McNally snapped back today, writing on Instagram, “If the supremely talented actor wants to retrieve the respect he had from all his fans (all 4 of them) before this incident, then he should at least admit he did wrong.”
When Itzkoff asked if he was aware of the fallout from McNally’s posts, Corden said, “I haven’t really read anything. It’s strange. It’s strange when you were there. I think I’m probably going to have to talk about it on Monday’s show. My feeling, often, is, never explain, never complain. But I’ll probably have to talk about it.”
Earlier this week, McNally went viral with his Instagram posts calling Corden “a tiny Cretin of a man” and “the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago.” Specifically, Corden was accused of being “extremely nasty” and “yelling like crazy” at waitstaff during two incidents, including once when an egg yolk omelet had a bit of egg white in it, and another time when Corden found a hair in his food.
After initially writing that Corden was “86’d” – i.e., banned – from Manhattan’s Balthazar restaurant, McNally subsequently reversed course, writing on Instagram that Corden had apologized and all was “forgiven.”
“I strongly believe in second chances,” McNally wrote, adding that “anyone magnanimous enough to apologize to a deadbeat layabout like me (and my staff) doesn’t deserve to be banned from anywhere.”
But Corden sounded anything but contrite to the Times. “I haven’t done anything wrong, on any level,” he said. During the lunchtime interview at an Upper East Side restaurant, Corden overheard a nearby customer chastising a waiter about an egg dish she’d ordered.
“Happens every day,” Corden said. “It’s happening in 55,000 restaurants as we speak. It’s always about eggs.” He added, “Can you imagine now, if we just blasted her on Twitter? Would that be fair? This is my point. It’s insane.”
The interview didn’t go down well with McNally, who responded today: “I’ve no wish to kick a man when he’s down. Especially one who’s worth $100 Million, but when James Corden said in yesterday’s NY Times that he hadn’t done ‘anything wrong, on any level,’ was he joking? Or was he denying being abusive to my servers? Whatever Corden meant, his implication was clear: he didn’t do it. Although I didn’t witness the incident, lots of my restaurant’s floor staff did. They had nothing to gain by lying. Corden did.
“I wish James Corden would live up to his Almighty initials and come clean. If the supremely talented actor wants to retrieve the respect he had from all his fans (all 4 of them) before this incident, then he should at least admit he did wrong. If he goes one step further and apologizes to the 2 servers he insulted, I’ll let him eat for free at Balthazar for the next 10 years.”
Tune in to Monday’s Late Late Show on CBS to see if the host serves up any new thoughts on the restaurant hubbub.
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