James Corden has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons this week after a New York restauranteur claimed he'd banned him from his eatery after the TV host allegedly "yelled like crazy" at a waiter.
Balthazar chain owner Keith McNally, 71, hit out at the Gavin and Stacey writer, 44, on Instagram, claiming a waiter was "left shaken" by the apparent outburst.
According to Mr McNally, James said he'd found traces of egg white in an egg yolk omelette and told 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!"
After the story broke, Mr McNally stood down, claiming that James had been in touch and offered a grovelling apology.
Taking to Instagram, he wrote: "James Corden just called me and apologised profusely. Having f****d up myself more than most people, I strongly believe in second chances.
"But... anyone magnanimous enough to apologise to a deadbeat layabout like me (and my staff) doesn't deserve to be banned from anyway. Especially Balthazar. So come back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Corden, Jimmy Corden. All is Forgiven. xx"
It's not the first time James, who grew up in Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire, has found himself embroiled in a high-profile beef.
From his on-stage mud-slinging with Patrick Stewart to his long-running rivalry with Ricky Gervais, the fur has flown...
Ricky Gervais
Ricky Gervais and James have a lot of similarities - but they certainly don't get on.
The pair would seem like ideal candidates to be pals, considering they are both British comedians who wrote iconic TV shows then found success in America.
Ricky is of course known for writing and starring in The Office, while James co-wrote Gavin & Stacey and became famous in the role of Smithy.
It took Ricky over a decade to get his big break with The Office and Extras, before some questionable film roles in box office flops Ghost Town and The Invention of Lying. James appeared in shows such as Fat Friends before landing his presenting gig on The Late Late Show.
The pair have become well known for trading nasty insults - but the first swipe took place in James' short-lived comedy show Horne and Corden.
During one sketch in their BBC 3 series back in 2009, James depicted Ricky as a bumbling fool who was struggling to find any work.
Corden poked fun at the David Brent character in a scene in the trenches during World War I, then in another he mocked his famous dance.
Mathew Horne, who created the show with James and starred as Gavin in Gavin & Stacey, revealed he had he had to pull James up for acting too much like Ricky during an episode of Never Mind the Buzzcocks.
James and Ricky then became almost direct rivals as they were both on hosting duties at major awards shows.
Gervais offended virtually the whole of Hollywood when he fronted the Golden Globes in 2011, but James said there wouldn't be as many bad-taste jokes when he hosted the Brit Awards that year.
"I’m not going to go down the Ricky Gervais road because, well, you can't in that room, anyway – there's a big difference between the O2 and the dining room in the Beverly Hilton," Corden told The Mirror.
"Basically, I want to host the Brits with as much warmth and sensitivity as possible. Fewer gags.
"Mostly I've been following guidance from the producers. They're encouraging a positive, upbeat, interesting show as opposed to anything particularly risque."
However, James did actually stick up for Ricky later in the year and told the haters to back off.
"People should keep their hands off him," said James. "If I only managed to do half of what he has done I will consider myself a success."
But there was clearly tension between the pair when Ricky started to criticise James for some of his jokes, including a controversial one he made about Harvey Weinstein.
"It's a beautiful night here in L.A," James said at the annual amfAR charity dinner in Hollywood in 2017, at the height of the #MeToo scandal emerging.
"So beautiful, Harvey Weinstein has already asked tonight up to his hotel to give him a massage."
Ricky is known for often going close to the line, but he had something to say about Corden's tasteless gag during an interview on Radio Andy.
"When you do a contentious joke or talk about a taboo subject, it's got to be a great joke," he said.
"You can't just bounce out there and do jokes about abuse and rape. You've got to be very intelligent when you do it. There's got to be a point to it.
"He did it like it was light entertainment. He didn't do it well enough."
The most outrageous insult came when Ricky hosted the Golden Globes again in 2020 and referred to James in some rather unsavoury terms.
He had the audience in stitches by joking: "The world got to see James Corden as a fat p****. He was also in the movie Cats, but no one saw that."
When hit by claims he was obsessed with Corden after the personal attacks, Gervais denied there was any resentment.
"There is no feud between myself and James nor has there ever been," stated Ricky to The Sun.
"The Cats joke that I told at the Golden Globes is obviously a pun on his role in the film, and James' impression of me in his sketch show was also friendly teasing, and I took no offence to that."
Ricky has even included a joke about James during his hit Netflix series After Life - in one scene where a character was writing her fantasy dinner party guest list.
When Kath mentions Corden and says "that man can do anything", Ricky's character replies: "And does."
Kath then says the comedian is always working, and gets back the response: "As a chauffeur, mainly".
It's obviously a clear reference to James' very successful carpool karaoke skit, where he gets celebs to sing their songs in his car.
In a recent interview, Gervais denied targeting Corden for a reason and said he has "nothing against" the celebs he makes jokes about.
"James did an impression of me in his show, I didn't take it personally, it's just fun," he told the Press Association.
"I've got no animosity. People will think that though, but as long as they (the subjects) don't, that's all I care about."
Mathew Horne
At one point James and his Gavin and Stacey co-star Mathew - who plays Gavin - were so close that they spent 263 days together in just one year.
James even admitted that they might as well have been "one person".
But their seemingly unsinkable friendship apparently cooled after a series of joint projects flopped.
In 2009, their comedy show, Horne and Corden was branded "about as funny as credit default swaps," by one savage journalist, while another simply called it "unfunny and joke-free".
Their movie Lesbian Vampire Killers was slammed as "badly directed, poorly acted and witlessly scripted" by The Guardian, and both actors said their hosting gig at the BRIT Awards was "so poor" that they couldn't watch it back.
The knockbacks put a huge strain on their friendship and the duo went their separate ways amid claims of a bitter falling out.
James previously reflected: "There was lots of horrible stuff about us... If I have one regret, it was we just rushed those things. We never stopped to think about the work enough.
"We did our own sketch show but the reaction was fierce. It was hard to go through that. We were riding this amazing wave and then it just dropped.
"In one year we spent 263 days together and we went from that to nothing."
James went on to front Sky 1's League of Their Own before landing a £10m three-year deal to front The Late Late Show in Hollywood.
And while reports initially claimed he and Mathew stopped speaking for a "few months, their brief separation soon became more permanent.
In 2011, James was cagey when asked about his former best mate, telling Piers Morgan they only spoke "occasionally" before it was revealed that Mathew had declined to appear on the show.
And their lives couldn't have been more different, with James having graduated from a flat above a doughnut shop to a £7.3million mansion in trendy Brentwood, Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, Mathew moved to the small Scottish town of Helmsdale which has just a population of 700.
But in 2016, he told The Mirror he was nothing but pleased to see James' career flourishing.
"Jealousy isn't something I do - I am not a jealous person. I am thrilled and about the success he is having," he said.
"It is what he always wanted and I have nothing happiness and encouragement for what he is doing.
"We never said we were going to be a double act and would work together for ever."
And in 2019, Mathew insisted the feud rumours had been "made up".
Discussing the rumours of a rift with The Times, he explained: "I think it all stemmed from my absence from James' Piers Morgan’s Life Stories. That's where the rumour that we'd fallen out started and it snowballed from there.
"I didn't go on that show because I was filming out of London, and they could only film my interview on one day, and I couldn't do it," he told The Times.
"The other reason is that I dislike Piers Morgan and everything he stands for. With hindsight, perhaps I should have put my feelings about Morgan and ethics aside, and supported my friend to whom I am greatly indebted and love very much," he said.
Patrick Stewart
James Corden and Sir Patrick Stewart once shocked onlookers at the awards ceremony when the pair got involved in a jaw-dropping verbal tussle.
James was hosting the Glamour Women of the Year event in front of an audience of showbiz names including Cheryl Cole, Billie Piper, Christine Bleakley and Lily Allen when the spat took place.
The drama unfolded when theatre veteran and Star Trek actor Sir Patrick got up on stage to present a gong for Film Actress of the Year and criticised Corden for his hosting techniques.
He told the comedy star not to stand at the back with his hands in his pocket looking like he would 'rather be somewhere else' when recipients got up to collect their gongs.
The feedback fell flat with Corden, and things got worse when Sir Patrick told the comic: "From where I was sitting, I could see your belly."
Corden countered: "Sorry, I'm waiting for the punchline. You could see my belly... Well I can see you dying [on stage] right now."
As the tension mounted, Sir Patrick retaliated, referencing one of James' earlier jokes about fancying heart-throb Nick Jonas.
"Do you want one more?" he continued. "If you fancy one of the Jonas Brothers, cover your belly."
After telling Sir Patrick to get on with it, the thespian presented the gong to Avatar star Zoe Saldana, who said: "I like your belly but I'd like to see Sir Patrick Stewart dying on stage any day."
Corden then said: "I feel bad for people who haven't seen my belly."
To huge applause he then lifted his T-shirt and showed off his tummy.
"OK can we get a taxi really quickly please. There's an old man going home," he said of Sir Patrick.
The pair appear to have patched things up in recent years, with Sir Patrick appearing on James' Late Late Show.
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