James Corden spoke to The New York Times and briefly addressed the controversy over his banning and unbanning from the New York City restaurant Balthazar. The television host called the entire story “silly” and “insane,” adding, “I haven’t done anything wrong, on any level.”
Balthazar owner Keith McNally took to Instagram earlier this week to announce Corden had been banned from the restaurant, calling the late night host “the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago.” McNally shared two stories about Corden’s alleged rude behavior, one of which included Corden’s wife ordering an “egg yolk omelette.” Corden complained to the staff because “a little bit of egg white mixed with the egg yolk.”
“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!’” McNally added at the time.
A few hours after announcing the ban, McNally posted that Corden was unbanned after he “called me and apologized profusely.” The Balthazar owner added, “Having fucked up myself more than most people, I strongly believe in second chances.”
During his interview with The New York Times, Corden was at a different restaurant and overheard a diner at another table complaining about her eggs.
“Can you imagine now, if we just blasted her on Twitter?” Corden said. “Would that be fair? This is my point. It’s insane.”
“I haven’t done anything wrong, on any level,” Corden added. “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.”
Hours after The Times interview published, McNally weighed in again on the matter to TMZ, saying, “I have no wish to kick a man when he’s down, but I believe the best way for James Corden to retrieve some of the vast respect the public had for him before this incident is to own up to it and apologize to the young servers he abused. If he’s big enough to do that, he can eat free at Balthazar for the rest of the year.”
Corden returns with new episodes of “The Late Late Show” on Oct. 24 and told The Times he is likely to address the controversy on air.
