A-list NYC restaurant owner calls out James Corden again after the TV star backtracked on his apology
- James Corden is back in hot water with an NYC restaurateur who banned and then unbanned him from his eatery.
- Balthazar owner Keith McNally ripped Corden for telling the New York Times that he did nothing "wrong" after apologizing.
James Corden is back in hot water with a New York City restaurateur who banned the comedian from his establishment — and then unbanned him — over accusations that he was "abusive" to staff.
Corden had initially apologized to Balthazar owner Keith McNally after McNally described Corden in an Instagram post as a "tiny Cretin of a man" and accused him of being extremely abusive to a manager and a server at his posh Manhattan restaurant.
However, Corden — who McNally had deemed as "the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago" — appeared unapologetic as he broke his silence about the ordeal in an interview with The New York Times.
"I haven't done anything wrong, on any level," Corden, the host of CBS' "The Late Late Show," told the Times in a report published on Thursday. "So why would I ever cancel this [interview]."
"I feel so Zen about the whole thing," Corden continued. "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."
Those remarks caused McNally to admonish Corden again in a second Instagram post.
"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?" McNally wrote in a post on Friday. "Or was he denying being abusive to my servers? Whatever Corden meant, his implication was clear: he didn't do it."
McNally said that his restaurant staff "had nothing to gain by lying" and that "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," McNally said.
The restaurateur then made Corden a deal.
"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."
Reps for Corden did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Insider on Friday.