James Corden has broken his silence after being temporarily banned from a New York restaurant for his alleged rude behaviour.
Earlier this week, the talk show host was briefly barred from Balthazar in Manhattan after the restaurant’s owner Keith McNally claimed he had been “extremely nasty” to his staff on two separate occasions.
However, the restaurateur later revoked the ban after James allegedly called him and “apologised profusely”.
During an interview with The New York Times this week, James publicly addressed the situation for the first time.
After the NYT reporter suggested he could have cancelled their planned interview in wake of the scandal, the comedian said: “I haven’t done anything wrong, on any level. 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.”
James also revealed he may address the incident on Monday’s episode of his Late Late Show on CBS.
“I think I’m probably going to have to talk about it on Monday’s show. My feeling, often, is, never explain, never complain. But I’ll probably have to talk about it,” he said.
In his original post on Instagram, Mr. McNally branded James the most “abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago”.
He shared parts of a manager’s report on Instagram, alleging that The Late Late Show host had been “extremely nasty” to his staff on two separate occasions.
During one alleged incident earlier this month, the manager claimed James started “yelling like crazy” and repeatedly told a server “you can’t do your job”. The report added that the server “was very shaken” but “continued to finish her shift”.
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Keith said he banned James from dining at Balthazar as a result of his alleged behaviour, but later lifted the ban after the comedian called him to apologise.
The restaurateur wrote in a second Instagram post: “James Corden just called me and apologized profusely. Having f**ked up myself more than most people, I strongly believe in second chances.”
“So if James Corden lets me host his Late Late Show for 9 months, I’ll immediately rescind his ban from Balthazar. No, of course not. 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. xx.”
