James Corden Doubles Down On Being The World's Worst Customer

I didn't think I'd be writing about The Late Late Show host James Corden twice in one week, but here we are. If you haven't been following along (I envy you), a quick recap: The CBS talk show host was banned from popular New York restaurant Balthazar earlier this week by owner Keith McNally, who called out Corden on Instagram as a "tiny Cretin of a man" after the celeb recently berated Balthazar staff for messing up his wife's omelet order. After the story went viral, Corden allegedly apologized to McNally by phone and was subsequently unbanned by the restaurateur the next day. However, following the debacle, Corden was interviewed by the New York Times, and it sounds like Corden's not particularly contrite about being rude to the restaurant staff. Now, McNally is pissed at the guy all over again.

During the NYT interview, which was held at chic NYC restaurant Jean-Georges, a woman at the restaurant happened to send back her plate of eggs.

"Happens every day," Corden noted. "It's happening in 55,000 restaurants as we speak. It's always about eggs."

Then he added, "Can you imagine now, if we just blasted her on Twitter? Would that be fair? This is my point. It's insane."

This sure doesn't sound like someone who understands why he was asked to apologize in the first place. He wasn't "blasted" for sending back an egg yolk omelet that had a bit of egg white in it. He was "blasted" for berating the servers for what amounts to an honest mistake that anyone could make.

"I haven't done anything wrong, on any level," Corden says later in the interview. "So why would I ever cancel this? 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."

McNally's reaction to this statement was strong. Posting on Instagram earlier today, McNally wrote the following caption alongside a photo of Corden:

I've no wish to kick a man when he's down. Especially one who's worth $100 Million, but when James Corden said in yesterday's NY Times that he hadn't done "anything wrong, on any level," was he joking? Or was he denying being abusive to my servers? Whatever Corden meant, his implication was clear: he didn't do it.

Although I didn't witness the incident, lots of my restaurant's floor staff did. They had nothing to gain by lying. Corden did.

I wish James Corden would live up to his Almighty initials and come clean. If the supremely talented actor wants to retrieve the respect he had from all his fans (all 4 of them) before this incident, then he should at least admit he did wrong. If he goes one step further and apologizes to the 2 servers he insulted, I'll let him eat for free at Balthazar for the next 10 years.

So basically, McNally is calling Corden out for the insincerity of his earlier apology, as well as the fact that Corden only reached out to McNally, rather than the servers affected by the celeb's diva behavior. There's a diplomatic way to complain about your food in a restaurant without being a jerk, and Corden did not oblige.

McNally said that if Corden directly apologizes to the servers he was abusive to, he'd let Corden eat for free for 10 years.

Here's the situation: If Corden doesn't apologize, he looks like an asshole. If Corden does apologize, then he's admitting to already being an asshole, which he obviously doesn't think he is. But say he does apologize and gets the awkward benefit of being able to eat for free at Balthazar for 10 years—redeeming that offer would make him look like kind of an asshole, too, because a celebrity can easily afford to eat there and doesn't need to take advantage of freebies.

So I've got a solution for you, James Corden, even though you're apparently not listening: Just apologize to the servers at Balthazar. Do it sincerely. Then, after you've apologized to them, don't accept a free meal. You're the one who caused this shit in the first place.

Not being an asshole isn't hard. All it takes is to sit back and be quiet. But I guess that goes against every instinct that led Corden to score a talk show in the first place.