James Corden’s apology to Keith McNally, a New York City restaurant owner, was not able to move him. McNally is the owner of Balthazar restaurant, an upscale restaurant in New York City. He posted on Instagram last week that Corden had repeatedly abused his staff. Corden did an interview after Corden. The New York TimesMcNally appeared to be growing more angry after disputing the post.
For those who aren’t familiar, McNally shared two accounts on Instagram of Corden’s alleged mistreatment restaurant staff last week. Comments added many more rumors that have accumulated over the years. Corden issued a statement to press on Friday, claiming that he hadn’t. “done anything wrong, on any level”McNally was the victim. McNally then posted his third Instagram story in the same debacle shortly afterwards, with a lengthy caption that began with: “STORM IN A RESTAURANT TEACUP.”
“I’ve no wish to kick a man when he’s down,”McNally went on. “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.”
McNally went on both to condemn Corden and to praise him. He called Corden a “sinister”. “supremely talented actor,”He joked that he only has a small fan base. Corden was asked to at least admit that Corden was rude to servers at his restaurant. But he concluded: “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.”
McNally’s initial post on this topic described two incidents reported by his restaurant staff. One incident was that Corden discovered a hair in his food. He then demanded that the manager be compensated and threatened to ruin the restaurant’s reputation. After his wife’s dish was wrongly served, Corden allegedly shouted at the waiter.
McNally’s second post stated that Corden called him just before he posted. However, that phone call didn’t seem appropriate given Corden’s tone on Friday. The Times reported that he had told Corden that the whole incident was “a complete failure”. “silly,” adding: “I just think it’s beneath all of us. It’s beneath you. It’s certainly beneath your publication.”
Corden also said to the Times that Monday’s episode on The Late Late Show would address this controversy. It starts at 12:35 AM. ET on CBS for those who are interested.