James Corden has been outted for "diva" behaviour. Photo / Supplied
James Corden has been outted for "diva" behaviour. Photo / Supplied
Given James Corden’s famous performance as a hapless waiter in the blockbuster play One Man, Two Guvnors, we might have hoped he would have more sympathy with that put-upon cadre. Not a bit of it. Or at least not according to the New York restaurateur Keith McNally, owner of SoHo celebrity haunt Balthazar. On Monday, McNally announced he had banned Corden from his restaurant, posting an eye-openingly frank assessment of his antics.
“James Corden is a hugely gifted comedian,” McNally wrote, “but a tiny cretin of a man. And the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago.” McNally went on to detail incidents in June and on October 9. In the first, Corden found a hair in his food. “Get us another round of drinks this second,” Corden, 44, reportedly said. “And also take care of all our drinks so far. This way I [won’t] write any nasty reviews in Yelp or anything like that.”
Most recently, Corden was at the restaurant for brunch and his wife ordered an egg yolk omelette with salad. (Queries about why anyone would order an omelette of just egg yolk, which would surely not aerate properly, are for another time.) A bit of egg white was included, so Corden went albumental and sent it back. When the dish returned it had home fries alongside it instead of salad. Corden flew off the handle. “You can’t do your job! You can’t do your job! Maybe I should go into the kitchen and cook the omelette myself!” The server was apparently “very shaken”.
Losing his rag over brunch marks the final ascent to celebrity for Corden, who has been on a one-way first-class flight to divadom since he broke through in his early 20s. In the light of his grandiose antics, it is ironic that he made his name playing charming, loveable cheeky chappies. First there was Timms in Alan Bennett’s The History Boys. Sample dialogue: “I don’t see how we can understand [poetry]. Most of the stuff poetry’s about hasn’t happened to us yet.” Then there was Smithy in Gavin and Stacey, a man whose confidence with the ladies was matched only by his surefootedness with an Indian takeaway menu. His performance as the clumsy but well-meaning Henshall propelled One Man, Two Guvnors first to the West End and then across the Atlantic to Broadway, where it won Corden a Tony Award.
When the producers of The Late Late Show were looking for a new presenter, Corden fit the bill. He radiated a kind of approachable irreverence. With his producer Ben Winston, he achieved what had looked impossible and made the dusty old late-night chat show relevant for the social media age. The key invention was Carpool Karaoke, a stroke of genius in which guests were invited to sing songs alongside Corden in a moving car. It was a curiously intimate segment, which reflected well on the celebrities – and most importantly, it was easy to share clips on social media. His extended segment with Paul McCartney, in which he travelled with the Beatle back to Liverpool, was genuinely moving.
Yet while Corden’s star has risen, so has his propensity for Hollywood-ish antics. The Balthazar incident is not the first hint we have had that he might not always be sweetness and light. The gossip website Popbitch has a story about a woman with a crying baby being shown to a seat next to Corden. Other passengers expected a celebrity hissy-fit, but Corden calmly put his eye-mask on and went to sleep while the woman attended to the child. It was only at the end of the flight, when the woman asked if he might at least hold the baby while she got the bags down, that they realised she was Corden’s wife, and the baby was his. There have been other rumours about his “perfectionism” as a colleague.
Although there is no excuse for bad manners, it is possible to feel sorry for Corden. Nobody likes to find hair in their food. We all have off days. It’s possible that the stars of an earlier era could be completely monstrous to staff. Perhaps Audrey Hepburn bawled out cab drivers or Cary Grant underpaid his nanny. Nobody ever found out about it. With social media, everyone in the public eye must be on guard the moment they leave the house. They used to have to worry about paparazzi and gossip columnists. Now everyone with Twitter or Instagram can post something that will be rehashed by tabloids within minutes. Everyone with a phone camera is a potential paparazzo.
“I would not be a celebrity in 2022,” says Dean Piper, a former celebrity journalist turned PR. “You can’t have a bad day now. Every single element is documented and there’s no privacy. You can’t be a bitch, you can’t have a go at staff, because you’re cancelled. When they leave the house they’re on guard. If they’re in a restaurant and don’t tip properly or say something nice to a nearby table or take a picture, someone will call them an a***h***. They used to be scared of journalists, but the celebrity interview has been devalued. Now they’re scared of Bob at the next table, or Jeffrey who’s getting the car.”
James Corden with wife Julia Carey, who one gossip website alleges was left to fend with their child for the duration of a flight while the star slept. Photo / Getty Images
The result is that celebrities are having to become ever more careful about how they comport themselves in public, and how they treat those serving them.
Ellen deGeneres’ career never recovered from accusations of on-set bullying made by her staff in 2020. Nobody would defend abuse. Another knock-on effect is that you are less likely to get an unguarded or honest exchange with a celebrity in the wild. People in the public eye are increasingly wary, the public increasingly trigger-happy with their smartphones.
The celebrities who seem to manage best are those who are able to put up walls around aspects of their personal life. It is possible: in 2020, Harry Styles managed to drive to Italy and back without anyone knowing about it – but it is increasingly difficult.
“It’s all so vanilla,” says Piper. “Social media has changed the roadmap. It’s no surprise that so many celebrities are really struggling with fame. In the old days they only had to worry about the tabloids, but not the general public. James has always had a bit of a reputation but when you see him in real life he’s lovely.”
He may be right. After initially saying he had “86′d” Corden from Balthazar – American restaurateur code for banning – McNally recanted on Tuesday. Corden had phoned him, he wrote, and “apologised profusely”. He would be welcome at Balthazar again. All that’s left to explain is exactly what an egg-yolk omelette is, and why you would order it. Celebrity is truly a mysterious world.
Don’t you name know who I am? Seven other famous divas:
Russell Crowe: The Oscar-winning actor was convicted of misdemeanour assault in 2005 after he threw a phone at a hotel employee in the Mercer Street Hotel, Manhattan. He was angry that he “couldn’t get a line” while trying to ring his wife.
Mariah Carey: Rumours run riot about the singer. She apparently confided to Alan Carr that she “doesn’t do stairs” and hired a “staircase assistant” whose job was to “check the stairs for her to see whether she could walk down them”. She’s also said to only allow photographers to take pictures of her from the right-hand side, and to bathe in cold milk as a beauty treatment.
Rumours run riot about the singer. Photo / Greg Bowker
Naomi Campbell: The supermodel pleaded guilty to hitting her maid in the head with her mobile phone in 2007 and agreed to a sentence of five days of community service and anger-management classes.
Tom Cruise: In 2012, the actor allegedly demanded the restaurant at the Forza Mare hotel in Montenegro be entirely cleared of guests so he could eat supper in peace. When told this wasn’t possible, he’s said to have ordered a takeaway to his yacht.
Gemma Collins: The star of The Only Way Is Essex criticised a journalist from Now magazine who hadn’t read her upcoming book, The GC: How To Be a Diva. Collins terminated the interview early. She allegedly hadn’t read the ghostwritten book herself, either.
Gemma Collins has been called a diva. Photo / WireImage
Barbra Streisand: Rumour has it that, during one particular visit to Las Vegas’s MGM Grand, all employees were even forbidden from engaging in eye contact with the American actress and songstress.
Diana Ross: Has been accused of the full gamut of diva behaviour, including ordering her housekeeper to flush the loo on her behalf.
