James Corden and Anne Hathaway are both having moments. At first glance, they appear to be very different types of moments — Corden revealed as jerk, Hathaway a hero — but they are really two sides of the same problem: the whims of a public that demands authenticity while too often accepting artifice.
Corden, who in 2014 leveraged his jolly "just love you" persona to replace Craig Ferguson on "The Late Late Show," became the latest performer to have his nice-guy persona publicly shredded (see also: Ellen DeGeneres) when he was recently banned from elite-meet eatery Balthazar by its owner Keith McNally, who admonished Corden for abusing wait staff on two occasions and generally revealing himself to be "a tiny Cretin of a man."
Corden subsequently apologized and McNally lifted the ban, but not before plenty of other folks posted other alleged examples of Corden's rude or arrogant behavior, bolstering yearslong rumors that his niceness is not so much a brand as an act.
