James Corden has broken his silence on the Balthazar restaurant row, saying he feels “zen” about the whole incident as he hasn’t done anything wrong.
The Late Late Show host was called “the most abusive customer” and a “tiny cretin of a man” by Keith McNally, the owner of French eatery Balthazar, who banned him from the New York eatery on Monday. But the restaurateur later lifted the ban, saying the actor and TV host “apologised profusely”.
On Thursday, Corden told the New York Times in an interview: “I haven’t done anything wrong, on any level. So why would I ever cancel this [interview]?”
“I was there. I get it. I feel so Zen about the whole thing. 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,” he added.
The British entertainer said he might address the incident on Monday’s The Late Late Show broadcast, but added that he has not “really read” anything that McNally has written yet.
“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,” he said.
The comedian was called out for being “extremely nasty” to staff on two occasions. McNally said Corden is a “hugely gifted comedian, but a tiny Cretin of a man”.
The interview was conducted at another New York restaurant where the reporter and Corden noticed another customer expressing discontent about her order of eggs.
Observing the happenings at the other table, the comedian told the journalist: “Can you imagine now, if we just blasted her on Twitter? Would that be fair?”
“This is my point. It’s insane,” Corden said.
Giving details of Corden’s inappropriate behaviour, McNally said the comedian found a hair in his food in an incident dating back to June.
“Although this is diabolical, it happens Very occasionally in all restaurants,” McNally wrote.
He said the “TV personality showed the hair to Balthazar manager G. who was very apologetic. Corden was extremely nasty to G, and said: ‘Get us another round of drinks this second. And also take care of all of our drinks so far. This way I write any nasty reviews in yelp or anything like that’.”
“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!’”
Narrating another incident which happened earlier this month, Mr McNally said Corden raised an issue over his wife’s omelette and “began yelling like crazy to the server”.
The restaurant owner said the server was “very apologetic and brought G. over to the table. He returned the dish, and after that, everything was fine”.
“He gave them promo Champagne glasses to smooth things out. G. said that Corden was pleasant to him but nasty to the server.’ MK [the server] was very shaken, but professional that she is, continued to finish her shift.’”
In another Instagram post, McNally said “all is forgiven”. “I strongly believe in second chances,” he said, adding that “anyone magnanimous enough to apologise to a deadbeat layabout like me (and my staff) doesn’t deserve to be banned from anywhere.”
The US talk show host announced in April that he will be departing from The Late Late Show next year and later announced his new stint with the upcoming Amazon Prime Video miniseries Mammals.
