I’ve done nothing wrong, insists James Corden, as he calls restaurant row ‘silly’

James Corden has said he did nothing wrong in the row over his allegedly “abusive” behaviour towards staff at a New York City restaurant.

Corden, 44, branded the row “silly” after he was banned from French eatery Balthazar for being “extremely nasty” to waiters on two occasions.

Owner Keith McNally described Corden as a “tiny cretin of a man” but later revoked the ban after receiving an apology over the phone.

But Corden, who is planning to step down from the CBS show next summer and return to Britain, has now told the New York Times that he feels “zen” about the incident.

Corden said pulling out of the pre-planned interview had not crossed his mind, telling the newspaper: “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.”

He insisted online criticism did not reflect what ordinary people thought about him, saying: “I’ve been here, walking around New York, not one person’s come up to me. We’re dealing in two worlds here.”

‘Never explain, never complain’

Corden added he is considering speaking further on the incident on next Monday’s episode of the Late Late Show. “My feeling, often, is, never explain, never complain. But I’ll probably have to talk about it,” he said.

Corden was widely criticised earlier this week after being described on Instagram by McNally as the “most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers” since the restaurant opened in 1997.

McNally wrote that Corden threatened to leave “nasty” reviews of the restaurant online after finding a hair in his food in June.

McNally added that in October, Corden had yelled “like crazy” at a waiter because they served his wife an egg yolk omelette that had white in it. 

He said Corden told the waiter, “You can’t do your job! You can’t do your job! Maybe I should go into the kitchen and cook the omelette myself!”

Corden’s representatives have been approached for comment.

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