“James Corden just called me and apologized profusely,” wrote Keith McNally, the restauranteur and owner of New York City hotspot Balthazar, on Oct. 17. Keith, 71, got James’ name to trend on Twitter after posting that the 44-year-old host of The Late Late Show was a “cretin of a man” for being “the most abusive customer” in the restaurant’s 25-year history. After the public shaming, James apparently threw himself at the mercy of McNally’s feet, and all was forgiven. “Having f-cked up myself more than most people, I strongly believe in second chances,” wrote McNally on Instagram. “So if James Corden lets me host his Late Late Show for [nine] months, I’ll immediately rescind his ban from Balthazar.”
“No, of course not,” joked McNally. “But….anyone magnanimous enough to apologize 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.”
McNally, who is known as “The Restaurateur Who Invented Downtown,” told Page Six that he was “reluctant” to blow up Corden’s spot by publishing his allegations but “did so out of loyalty to restaurant servers everywhere. Their jobs are hard enough already. They shouldn’t have to take this kind of abuse from anyone, especially the rich and famous.”
And so, the knives (and forks and spoons) came out for the outgoing Late Late Show host. “James Corden is a Hugely gifted comedian, but a tiny cretin of a man,” wrote McNally on Monday in a now-viral Instagram post. “And the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago. I don’t often 86 a customer, to today I 86’d Corden. It did not make me laugh.”
From there, McNally accused Corden of two instances of abuse. James supposedly demanded “another round of drinks” after he found a hair in his main course. James sapparentlysaid that if the restaurant “take(s) of all our drinks so far,” he wouldn’t “write any nasty reviews in Yelp.” The second accusation came over a mix-up with his wife’s order. “Mr. Corden’s wife ordered an egg yolk omelette (sic) with gruyere cheese and salad. A few minutes after they received the food, James called their server, M. K., and told her there was a little bit of egg white mixed with the egg yolk,” claims McNally.
“The kitchen remade the dish but 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!'” claimed McNally.
HollywoodLife reached out to Corden’s rep for comment over the original story, but within hours after the story blew up, McNally had reversed his 86-ing.