UPDATED 10/25, 8:15 p.m. ET: Restaurateur Keith McNally hit Instagram with another comically zoomed-in image of James Corden to share his “last word” on the matter.
“Last Night on his TV show, James Corden very graciously apologized for his outburst at Balthazar,” McNally wrote. “It takes a real man to do this. In the past, I’ve behaved much worse than Corden, but wasn’t man enough to apologize. For this reason, I’m going to lift the ban on Corden and impose one on myself instead. I’m going to ban myself from Balthazar for 2 weeks. People who live in Glass Houses…”
See original story below.
James Corden used a portion of Monday’s Late Late Show to address the restaurant ban controversy he’s been at the center of in recent days.
After an opening bit dealing with imagined thoughts of isolating himself from social media and related communications during a week off, Corden launched into his side of the debacle, which has included multiple public comments from Balthazar owner Keith McNally.
“Last week, there were stories about me being banned from a restaurant,” Corden told his audience on Monday. “And at the time I considered, you know, like tweeting about it or Instagramming about it. But whenever these sorts of moments come my way, I like to adopt quite a British attitude of sort of ‘keep calm, carry on.’ Things are gonna get written about me. ‘Never complain, never explain’ is very much my motto. But as my dad pointed out to me on Saturday, he said, ‘Well, son, you did complain so you might need to explain.’”
From there, Corden—a “tiny cretin of a man” according to McNally—conceded to having made “a mistake” when out for breakfast at Balthazar with friends and his wife, Julia Carey, several weeks ago. According to Corden, Carey relayed to restaurant staff that she had a “serious food allergy” before receiving an incorrect order.
“As her meal came wrong to the table the third time, in the heat of the moment I made a sarcastic rude comment about cooking it myself,” Corden said. “It is a comment I deeply regret. I understand the difficulties of being a server. I worked shifts at restaurants for years and I have such respect and I value anyone who does such a job. And the team at that restaurant are so great. That’s why I love it there. The restaurant manager and the server, they were lovely.”
Corden’s breakdown of how he says the restaurantroversy went didn’t stop there. Per the Cats star, he initially felt he hadn’t done “anything wrong” because he didn’t scream or use “derogatory language” during the incident.
“But the truth is, I made a rude comment and it was wrong,” he said, adding that it was also “unnecessary’ and “ungracious.”
Wrapping up his statement, Corden referenced the onslaught of social media criticism he’s received following the restaurant ban news and also expressed his desire to one day to return to this particular establishment to “apologize in person.”
As previously reported, Corden was initially banned from Balthazar for being its “most abusive customer.” This ban was temporarily lifted following an apology. However, it was believed to have been reinstated after Corden appeared to retract his prior apology.
On Monday, McNally again referenced Corden in an IG update, this time stating a flight attendant had given him added attention during a recent trip due to having “never cared for James Corden either.”
