Scandals That Destroyed James Corden's Reputation In Hollywood

When British star James Corden began as the host of "The Late Late Show" on CBS in March 2015, he had an affable charm and charisma that resonated with audiences in America. His easy smile and jolly nature made people feel comfortable, and he pioneered some brilliant segments, including"Crosswalk the Musical" and "Carpool Karaoke" – in which he showed off his lovable friendship with Adele. However, audiences back in the U.K. already knew Corden from his work on countless British TV shows, and many had already started to sour on Corden in the years leading up to his time as an American talk show host.

While Corden is now among the slew of embattled former talk show hosts you don't hear from anymore, his career downfall came as something of a curveball for many fans of his charming on-screen persona. It all began with some bad behavior at a famous New York City restaurant in which he treated wait staff poorly, and got into an argument with the famous owner. Then things began to spiral when more and more stories started to circulate online about allegedly awful encounters people had with Corden over the years.

As the wave of negativity continued to mount and started to crest, some former fans began looking back at some of the things Corden had allegedly done as the host of "The Late Late Show." Corden was accused of being something of a bad boss who couldn't remember the names of his own crew members and allegedly even tried to get his writers pay cuts to afford assistants. While Corden eventually quit "The Late Late Show" in April 2023, he's still worth a massive amount of money from the position. However, it's unclear if he'll ever be able to rebuild his friendly, everyman reputation.

They say you can tell what kind of person someone truly is by the way they treat their waiters. If that's true, it can't be good for James Corden, who allegedly treated the staff at New York hotspot Balthazar extremely disrespectfully. The drama began in October 2022 when Balthazar's owner, Keith McNally, took to Instagram to eviscerate Corden for the way he supposedly behaved at his restaurant. "James Corden is a hugely gifted comedian, but a tiny Cretin of a man," McNally wrote. "And the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago."

In the post, McNally claimed that Corden had screamed at wait staff on two different occasions — first when he supposedly found a hair in his meal and then demanded that he and his companions be given free drinks, and then on another occasion when Corden's wife ordered her meal with a salad, but was brought fries instead. This apparently caused Corden to have a meltdown. He was then banned from the restaurant.

Corden later tried to explain away his behavior, but this only led to more outrage over his refusal to accept accountability. Eventually, Corden contacted McNally and apparently apologized, after which the famously mercurial restaurateur forgave him. That was undone when Corden then gave an interview in which he said he did nothing wrong and it was all a misunderstanding, after which McNally washed his hands of the drama and the concept of forgiveness altogether.

When you're a big TV star, it's always important to maintain a good and respectful relationship with your cast and crew. That way, those employees don't end up going to the press with horror stories about their boss's behavior. Ellen DeGeneres learned this lesson the hard way. For James Corden, the horror stories came courtesy of television director Craig Duncan, who called Corden out for being just awful to work with.

"The most difficult and obnoxious presenter I've ever worked with is James Corden," Duncan said in a video he posted to YouTube in April 2023. According to Duncan, the negative interaction occurred in 2013, while directing an episode of the British game show "A League of Their Own," which Corden hosted for several seasons. During one episode, production had run late on a previous segment, and Corden was apparently in a hurry to get done and leave, so he decided Duncan was taking too long to set up the shots.

"We were working it out when old bugger-lugs pipes up, 'What the f*** is going on here? It's obvious what you do. You put a camera there. You put a camera there. You put a camera there. You put a camera there. It's so obvious how you shoot it, it's stupid,'" Duncan recalled Corden saying. Duncan said he told the crew to do exactly as Corden had said, but felt as though the presenter had been "treading all over my toes," and really made the entire experience unpleasant all around.

When it comes to comedy, stealing jokes is one of the most unforgivable sins, but also one of the most common. However, it's rare to see a late-night talk show host lift a bit, almost verbatim, from one of the biggest stand-up comedians in the world. Yet this is apparently what happened with James Corden when he delivered a joke in his monologue that was stolen from one of Ricky Gervais' stand-up specials. The joke revolves around the idea of people getting mad about an advertisement for guitar lessons, and how not everything has to be intended for all audiences, all as a metaphor for the vitriol and anger that makes up X (formerly known as Twitter).

Corden got called out for it almost immediately, including by Gervais himself, who posted a since-deleted tweet sharing a clip of Corden's monologue and quipping, "The bit about the town square advert for guitar lessons is brilliant." One X-user edited together the bits to show just how similar they were, and jokingly captioned the post: "Plagiarism? I don't know what people are talking about, these two jokes by [Corden] and [Gervais] are barely similar."

Plagiarism? I don't know what people are talking about, these two jokes by @JKCorden and @rickygervais are barely similar pic.twitter.com/9kYOHiOiLj

— Paul Anthony (@PaulFI9) November 1, 2022

Corden later apologized on  X: writing, "Inadvertently told a brilliant Ricky Gervais joke on the show last night, obviously not knowing it came from him. It's brilliant, because it's a Ricky Gervais joke." Although the acknowledgement didn't stop Corden from getting thrashed online by other X users, and comments were even turned off on the apology post.

It seems that if you worked on a TV show every day for years on end, you'd almost certainly get to know your staff and crew. This apparently wasn't the case for James Corden. In an embarrassing moment from 2016 — which resurfaced in 2022, amid Corden's Balthazar drama — the talk show host apparently couldn't remember the names of some of his camera people. Corden was joined by fellow late-night host Jimmy Kimmel for an installment of Corden's controversial segment "Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts" (which he later stopped doing after it was criticized for being racist and ridiculing international cuisines).

During the bit, in which Kimmel and Corden were challenged to either answer questions honestly or each a food they deemed disgusting, Kimmel asked Corden to "name two of the camera men in this room." Corden laughed uncomfortably and tried to buy time before eventually admitting he couldn't do it, and had to consume a fish smoothie. Corden tried to argue that it was a "different crew" than usual, but that excuse didn't seem to hold water with people watching at home.

Corden's apparent disregard for his staff doesn't end with the camera crew. It was alleged by former "Jimmy Kimmel Live" writer Jack Allison that Corden attended a WGA meeting with his producers and tried to advocate for being able to pay new writers on his show lower wages when starting off (per PopDust). Corden tweeted that Allison's post, which has since been deleted, was "completely untrue," but it was hard for Corden not to get slammed for going to the WGA meeting without any of his writers present.