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The drama isn't over. Days after James Corden seemingly apologized to a New York City restaurant owner for past "abusive" behavior, the Late Late Show host is walking back his apology, per TMZ.
Keith McNally, owner of popular NYC eatery Balthazar, initially blasted Corden on social media on Monday (October 17), calling him the "most abusive" customer he's ever dealt with and detailing alleged instances of the talk show host's explosive interactions with service industry workers. He also banned Corden from the restaurant for his "extremely nasty" behavior.
It didn't take long for word of the post to reach Corden as McNally said in a follow-up post on Instagram the host called him and apologized "profusely," allowing him back as he "strongly [believes] in second chances."
"Anyone magnanimous enough to apologize to a deadbeat layabout like me (and my staff) doesn't deserve to be banned from anywhere ... all is forgiven," he said.
Everything appeared to be back to normal; however a New York Times interview with Corden on Thursday (October 20), has reignited the issue as he now says that he didn't do anything wrong.
Calling the allegations "silly," the Late Late Show host denied claims he acted like a "cretin" at the restaurant.
"I haven't done anything wrong, on any level," he said, telling the interviewer, "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. It's beneath you. It's certainly beneath your publication."
At one point in the interview, Corden watched as a customer at the restaurant they were in started complaining about her own order of eggs, something that he himself was under fire for earlier this week.
"Happens every day ... It's always about eggs," he said, adding, "Can you imagine now, if we just blasted her on Twitter? Would that be fair? This is my point. It's insane."
McNally rebuked Corden's new comments, telling TMZ, "I have no wish to kick a man when he's down, but I believe the best way for James Corden to retrieve some of the vast respect the public had for him before this incident is to own up to it and apologize to the young servers he abused. If he's big enough to do that, he can eat free at Balthazar for the rest of the year."