TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE LATE

‘Zen’ Corden Responds to Balthazar Drama: ‘I Haven’t Done Anything Wrong’

Corden and his reps agreed to a Thursday interview with The New York Times at the start of October. What could possibly go wrong?

James Corden, the little angel, probably thought he was in for a quiet October. With The Late Late Show set to take a short mid-month break, he and his reps might have thought it was the ideal time to schedule an interview with, say, The New York Times. “What a perfect way to advertise James’ forthcoming Amazon Prime miniseries, Mammals,” one can imagine them saying to each other at the start of the month—when they set the breakfast date with the Times, according to reporter Dave Itzkoff. “What could possibly go wrong between then and now?” Then along came Keith McNally, restaurateur extraordinaire, and the brief 86’ing of Cordon from his eatery Balthazar for alleged abusive behavior to staff. The stalwart Cordon refused to cancel his sitdown with the Times, resulting in what Itzkoff called an “often” awkward heart-to-heart. “I haven’t done anything wrong, on any level,” Corden said, regarding Balthazar. “... 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.” Later, he waxed poetic about how the swirling omelet-related controversy probably flew under the radar of most Americans, having earlier asserted he hadn’t “really read anything” about it himself. “Should we not all be a little grown-up about this?” he asked. Stay strong, king.