"I haven't done anything wrong." Why everyone is talking about James Corden not being... nice.

In a whirlwind number of hours, James Corden was banned - and then unbanned - from a famous New York City restaurant. Then Corden "apologised profusely" - only to take back the apology.

Yeah, it's getting messy. Here's everything you need to know about this unfolding drama.

For years, the late night TV host and Gavin & Stacey actor was best known as a self-deprecating funny Brit - and the guy who does Carpool Karaoke. Now he's renowned as a bit of a d*ck.

So, when news that he had been banned from NYC establishment Balthazar after behaving rudely on multiple occasions, according to the owner, was responded to with, well, resounding "duhs".

Watch: The Prom trailer. Story continues below video.

Corden was put on blast publicly by restaurateur Keith McNally, owner of highly acclaimed French brasserie Balthazar in Manhattan. 

On October 17, McNally posted a photo of Corden to his Instagram account, calling him a "cretin of a man" who had behaved so badly on at least two occasions that he felt the need to publicly out him.

"James Corden is a hugely gifted comedian, but a tiny cretin of a man. And the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago," McNally said.

In the first alleged incident, in June, McNally said Corden demanded two free rounds of drinks for him and his friends after he presented a hair that was found on his food.

McNally claimed the talk-show host said: "Get us another round of drinks this second. And also take care of all of our drinks so far," adding, "This way I [won't] write any nasty reviews in Yelp or anything like that."

In another alleged episode on October 9, McNally said Corden flipped out when the egg yolk omelette his wife had ordered was found to have a little egg white in it.

The kitchen remade the dish but accidentally sent it out with fries instead of salad.

"That's when James Corden began yelling like crazy to the server: 'You can't do your job! You can't do your job! Maybe I should go into the kitchen and cook the omelette myself!'" McNally wrote.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Keith McNally (@keithmcnallynyc)

He said Corden's server was extremely apologetic and brought over the floor manager. 

The dish was returned and Corden received promo Champagne glasses "to smooth things over". 

McNally said the server was "very shaken, but professional that she is, continued to finish her shift".

McNally's post had received more than 17,000 likes in just five hours, with thousands of comments praising him for outing bad behaviour towards hospitality staff.

However, in a twist that occurred only nine hours after the original post (which has still not been deleted), McNally shared another equally blurry picture of James Corden with an update. 

In the caption he explained that Corden had called him to apologise, and he is now ready to forgive him.

"James Corden just called me and apologised profusely," McNally wrote. "Having fucked up myself more than most people, I strongly believe in second chances. So if James Corden lets me host his Late Late Show for 9 months, I’ll immediately rescind his ban from Balthazar. No, of course not.

"But... anyone magnanimous enough to apologize to a deadbeat layabout like me (and my staff) doesn’t deserve to be banned from anywhere. Especially Balthazar. So come back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Corden, Jimmy Corden. All is forgiven."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Keith McNally (@keithmcnallynyc)

Despite the semi-retraction, the post only added more noise to the now almost universally accepted idea that Corden is not 'nice' (and raised questions about if the apology extended to those who deserve it most - the servers).

Just when we all thought the drama had blown over, in a following interview with the New York Times, Corden addressed his restaurant behaviour and admitted he found the situation "so silly."

"I haven't done anything wrong, on any level. So why would I ever cancel this [interview]? I was there. I get it," Corden said. "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."

When asked if he was "aware" of the conversation surrounding him currently, he said he might "have to talk about it" on his show.

"I haven’t really read anything. It’s strange. It’s strange when you were there," he said. "I think I’m probably going to have to talk about it on Monday’s show. My feeling, often, is, never explain, never complain. But I’ll probably have to talk about it."

Not only did Corden feel the dialogue surrounding his behaviour was uncalled for, he also went on to say "not one person" had approached him while walking around New York City.

"Should we not all be a little grown-up about this?" he said. "I promise you, ask around this restaurant. They don’t know about this. Maybe 15 per cent of people. I’ve been here, been walking around New York, not one person’s come up to me. We’re dealing in two worlds here."

He added: "If I lived on Twitter, Hillary Clinton is the president of the United States and Jeremy Corbyn won by a landslide."

After reading Corden's comments published in the New York Times, McNally took to Instagram once again to respond.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Keith McNally (@keithmcnallynyc)

"STORM IN A RESTAURANT TEACUP. I’ve no wish to kick a man when he’s down," he wrote. "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.

"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. If he goes one step further and apologises to the 2 servers he insulted, I’ll let him eat for free at Balthazar for the next 10 years."

The criticism against Corden is similar to that levelled at Ellen DeGeneres throughout 2020, heightened by the fact the internet always found him a little annoying.

Here are all the stories that have followed Corden around over the past 18 months.

What are the rumours about James Corden?

In his homeland, Corden was painted as ungrateful and entitled, especially after moaning about Gavin & Stacey not being nominated for the 2008 best comedy BAFTA award.

There are articles about Corden's perceived attitude floating around from 2017, and in 2010 there was commentary about a very awkward, very public run in he had with Sir Patrick Stewart.

See below, and prepare to feel... uncomfortable:

In 2019, Corden made an appearance on Reddit's AMA (Ask Me Anything) thread to promote a special edition of Carpool Karaoke, but it massively backfired.

Comments calling Corden names hijacked the thread. With more than 700 comments, Corden and his team were reportedly only able to answer about three fan questions before leaving the conversation.

Comments called him rude, an a***hole and much worse.

One person claimed Corden had "allegedly showed up to a WGA [Writer's Guild Of America] union meeting for late night writers with an executive producer and none of the writing staff" and advocated less pay for new writers under their union-negotiated minimum wage.

Corden had previously denied this was the case.

Murmurs of his attitude resurfaced when Corden's name was floated as a replacement for DeGeneres, with Twitter users claiming doing so would replace one problematic talk show host with another just as problematic.

Fast forward to October 2020, and Vanity Fair published a profile on comedian Eric Andre - who was another name in the mix as DeGeneres' successor.

Image: Getty. 

In criticising cancel culture, Andre helped the internet justify Corden's.

"We have a psychopath in the White House and we're in the longest war of all time. It seems like small potatoes compared to the world crumbling into these right-wing authoritarian dictatorships and these industrialised nations," Andre began.

"Boohoo, Ellen was mean. Who gives a s***? I never thought she was nice! She seems like she’d be like, 'F***ing get me a coffee! Now!'

"Is that what cancel culture's devolved to? 'That guy's not nice!' James Corden is f***ed if that's the only criteria to get called out.

"James Corden and [Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon executive producer] Lorne Michaels are screwed! They're trembling in their f***ing boots."

Within days of the Andre interview, Instagram account Deux Moi (which shares mostly anonymous messages about celebrities/pop culture, sent in by followers) had posted several stories alleging negative interactions with Corden.

Deux Moi does not confirm statements, and as far as this writer can tell, they all came from anonymous Instagram users.

Among them was someone whose co-worker said Corden dropped his jacket on the ground at the Met Gala and when he was told he needed to check it in, replied "someone will handle it".

James Corden apparently even worse than ellen according to deuxmoi plssss lmfao pic.twitter.com/Zev0HlvFw4

— ً (@SUCCESSlON) October 26, 2020

Why is James Corden trending? What has he done now...swear he was a horrible person anyway lol? Another Ellen? Oop 👀 ☕️

— Emma (@emma_3213) October 22, 2020

Another account claimed they had served Corden and other diners (including Harry Styles) at a London restaurant and he had been rude to wait staff.

"He screamed at me when his meal came out because it wasn't what he wanted," their message said.

This was shared alongside a screenshot from the previously mentioned AMA, where a commenter said:

"Me and my friends sat at a table next to you and Harry Styles + some others in Manchurian Legends in London's Chinatown about six years ago. We didn't bother you but you were a massively entitled c*** who yelled and treated the waitstaff like shit, and when one of my party politely suggested you calm down, you got really aggressive and threatening."

Other Deux Moi claims alleged Corden is a serial 'food returner', which appears in line with McNally's post.

Among the posts, there were also messages from people who had different accounts of Corden and found these hard to believe.

"My husband has worked with [Corden] a couple of times... He said James was just the most congenial, happy-go-lucky [person], cracking jokes from the moment he came on, knows how to make fun of himself and puts the people around him at ease."

What has James Corden said?

Apart from taking back his apology during his New York Times interview, Corden previously admitted in January 2020 that he began to "behave like a brat" and let fame get to his head earlier in his career. This was especially in 2008, when the British press and public blasted him for complaining about Gavin & Stacey's BAFTA nominations.

"I started to behave like a brat that I just don't think I am," he told the New Yorker.

"It's so intoxicating, that first flush of fame. And I think it’s even more intoxicating if you're not bred for it."

This article was originally published on October 29, 2020 and has since been updated with new information.

Feature image: Getty.