James Corden admitted he was “rude” and “rude” during an incident that resulted in his ban from a New York restaurant.
The actor and comedian was briefly excluded from Balthazar in Manhattan last week after its owner, Keith McNally, claimed in a social media post that he was “extremely mean” to his staff on two separate occasions.
Addressing the incident during the latest episode of his talk show, The Late Late Show, Corden said it was never his intention to upset the restaurant workers, but said he was reacting to the fact that his wife Julia had been given “food she was allergic to”.
The 44-year-old added that soon after he had been “walking around thinking this I haven’t done anything wrong“.
“I didn’t scream or scream, I didn’t get up from my seat, I didn’t call anyone by name or use derogatory language,” he said on the CBS show.
“But the truth is, I made a rude and rude comment. And it was wrong. It was an unnecessary comment, he was rude to the server.”
The Gavin and Stacey star explained that after seeing Mr. McNally’s post, she “immediately” contacted him and they “had a good chat.”
“He appreciated the call. I was happy that we were able to clear the air. And I felt like we had dealt with it in private … but at this point, the story was out there and more people were upset,” he said.
After McNally posted the story online, it sparked outrage on social media, with Corden showing his audience some of the fierce tweets that were written about him.
“I understand. I understand perfectly. I understand that everyone gets angry and I accept everyone’s opinion,” he said.
He added that he hopes to return to the restaurant when he returns to New York to “apologize in person”.
What did Mr. McNally say happened?
In an Instagram post, the famous restaurant owner described Corden as the “most offensive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago.”
Claimed he was “extremely mean” to a staff member after finding a hair in his food.
While admitting that the discovery was “diabolical”, he added that the manager at the time was “very apologetic”.
Referring to him as a “little jerk of a man”, he claimed the celebrity asked for a round of free drinks “this second” and also wanted the restaurant to “take care” of all drinks served at his table.
In a second incident, Mr. McNally claimed that Corden complained “there was a little egg white mixed with the yolk” in his wife’s omelette.
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Her post continued: “The kitchen redid the dish but sadly sent it with homemade fries instead of the salad.
“That’s when James Corden started yelling like crazy at the waiter: ‘You can’t do your job! You can’t do your job! Maybe I should go to the kitchen and cook the omelette myself!'”
However, within hours of announcing he was “86’d” (a US hospitality slang term meaning “banned”) McNally wrote another post to say that the ban was lifted after Corden apologized.
