Comedian James Corden has “profusely” apologised after he was temporarily banned from a favourite celebrity New York restaurant for being “extremely nasty”.
But his apology hasn’t gone down well with all fans, who are demanding the The Late Late Show host go further.
The furore began after the owner of New York hotspot Balthazar, Keith McNally, revealed on Monday that Corden had twice been an “abusive customer”.
“James Corden is a hugely gifted comedian, but a tiny cretin of a man. And the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago,” he wrote in an incendiary Instagram post.
“I don’t often 86 a customer, to today I 86’d Corden. It did not make me laugh.”
McNally said the first incident occurred in June, when Corden was “extremely nasty” to the restaurant’s manager, showing a hair that he implied he had found in his main course.
McNally said Corden was unpleasant and told the manager: “Get us another round of drinks this second. And also take care of all our drinks so far.”
A second run-in came in early October when Corden got angry about the presentation of his wife’s meal.
“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 … and told her there was a little bit of egg white mixed with the egg yolk,” he said.
McNally said the situation escalated when a replacement meal was also partially incorrect because staff “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!’.”
But then on Wednesday (Australian time) in a follow-up post, after Corden called him and “profusely apologised”, McNally said had decided to remove the the ban.
“If James Corden lets me host his Late Late Show for nine months, I’ll immediately rescind his ban from Balthazar,” McNally wrote.
“No, of course not.
“But…. anyone magnanimous enough to apologise 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 xx.”
Not everyone was so generous, however.
“Of course he apologised,” one person wrote on McNally’s post.
“He’s being dragged everywhere online. The only form of an acceptable apology is changed behaviour.”
“Why apologise to you and not the staff?” another follower said.
“Noooo need to backtrack. He should be apologising directly to your staff,” wrote a third.
Tweet from @str8outtamty
Tweet from @MajorPhilebrity
One Twitter account purporting to be Disneyland (but not really), said “we’re banning James Corden too”.
Tweet from @Disneyland2go
