Can James Corden recover from ‘omelette-gate’? ALISON BOSHOFF asks what’s in store for the star

Despite having a brave face, James Corden is not having a good week. In fact, as those quick-bitten nails confirm, the opposite is true.

A seemingly insignificant feud over the chat show host’s wife who was given a yolk-only omelet with a rogue egg white at New York’s Balthazar restaurant erupted on Oct. 17. . and is still raging almost three weeks later.

It seems that every day has brought something new. He was banned from the venue, apologized, was unbanned, tried to justify himself, was called a liar and was banned again. None of that made him look any better.

Indeed, the effects of omelet-gate have unleashed a torrent of abuse on a global scale—to the point where one cannot be sure that Corden’s reputation has not been irreparably tarnished.

It’s open season at Corden. This week he had to apologize for the seemingly unwitting plagiarism of a Ricky Gervais prank on CBS’s The Late Late Show. He is also accused of stealing a routine from Noel Fielding in 2017. ‘Yes. I believe this is my material,” Fielding wrote on Twitter.

Its critics, and there are many, love it. “It’s all over except the crying fat boy,” someone wrote online yesterday.

There are those who believe that it is nothing less than this “unpleasant” man deserves. As a former colleague happily said to me, “This has taken a long time, hasn’t it?”

Another source described Corden as “a very complicated and very insecure person who can behave very badly – and I’ve seen him do that.”

Friend Ruth Jones, with whom he co-wrote the hit TV comedy Gavin & Stacey, has previously said his business is a roller coaster because there are two versions of James Corden, and one is more fun than the other.

Even mild-mannered actor Eddie Redmayne, who went to drama school with him, said just a few weeks ago that his behavior can be very mean.

Redmayne told a story about Corden ambushing him on The Late Late Show by broadcasting a full two and a half minute clip of the Oscar-winning star singing Memory while he was at school. “I just squirmed a little,” Redmayne said. “It was public ritual humiliation.”

With the boot on the other side, Corden’s friends are stunned and confident that the episode is taking a serious toll. “This has been very hard, very disturbing,” I was told. “It would be a lot for anyone to deal with.”

They add: ‘Is he going to have to talk about this every day for the rest of his life? What’s happening is so unfair and so bizarre.’

Perhaps Corden’s great mystery is why, for all the feel-good hit shows, his steady family life, boys next door, and notable good works, there’s a vocal group called the actor, who was raised by supportive and deeply Christian parents in Buckinghamshire.

A source, who has spent time with him repeatedly over the years, told me this week: “So far he’s been a double lottery winner – he’s a comedic actor who has risen to incredible fame, largely because of his talent for acting.” networking with brilliant, useful people, such as [TV producer] Ben Winston, the genius behind The Late Late Show and Friends: The Reunion, which he fronted.

“James was lucky and smart. The problem is, he’s been sold to us as the boy next door, when he’s actually a powerful man. He has a stylist and a tailor and a nutritionist and is as Hollywood as they come.

“His friends are all famous. His wife is a power player, besties with Adele and Meghan Markle.

“When he gets ‘caught’ acting like a member of his multi-millionaire media tribe, everyone thinks he’s fake, but actually he’s not. That person who sent an omelette back and was rude about it is just who he is now.”

At this point, it’s worth noting that we’ve been here before. In 2008, there was a backlash when Corden, at the height of his fame after the success of Fat Friends and then Gavin & Stacey, embarked on a festive period.

He seemed to live in the Groucho Club. He tried to date Lily Allen and gave singer Alexandra Burke a £4,000 watch to convince her of his intentions. He went out and dumped Sheridan Smith.

As he admitted in his memoirs, after too much partying, he was rude, self-centered, and “lost.”

An intervention from his father and mother, Malcolm and Margaret, made him realize the error of his ways.

“I felt so ashamed of the way I had lived my life, the arrogance and disrespect I had shown myself and my work,” he said.

Has he hit a personal low again? It is true that he is going through an important period of change, both professionally and personally. In April, he announced that he would not renew his contract with CBS as host of The Late Late Show, despite big-money offers to stay, and would return to the UK next year. The family’s £6 million home in London was sold this spring and their £7.5 million home in Los Angeles was quietly put up for sale in October.

He cites his three children with wife Julia (Max, 11, Carey, eight, and four-year-old Charlotte) as the reason behind running away from America at the height of his success. doesn’t want to be away from them any longer.

He said he doesn’t know what he’ll be doing from the summer of 2023 when he returns, but more acting and writing seems likely.

His performance in the Amazon drama Mammals has been praised. He has also written two scripts for feature films.

Sure, it seems that the actor is already thinking that he is taking a huge risk and may never have success on this scale again.

In an interview with the Radio Times, he said he had “made peace” with the possibility that his return could be considered a failure.

“I think failure is necessary, for everyone. You need it. I’m at peace with the idea that it may never be as big as this one. Anyway, the worst-case scenario is that I get to take my kids to school and pick them up every day.”

For those who need to be reminded, the current crisis started when New York’s Balthazar owner Keith McNally wrote on Instagram that Corden was a “cretin” and “insulting” to the staff. Apparently he sent his wife’s omelet back because it had egg white in it, and when the returning dish had the wrong side dish, Corden lost his temper, yelled and offered to cook it himself.

Keith McNally said the “extremely annoying” star was banned from the venue. A day later, he said that Corden had called to apologize “extensively” and that he had not been suspended.

It was bad luck for Corden that this coincided with a press tour to promote Mammals, as he promptly gave a New York Times interview where he made things much worse by showing what came across as conceit.

He told the interviewer, “I haven’t done anything wrong, on any level. I feel so Zen about the whole thing. Because I think it’s so stupid. I just think it’s below all of us. It’s under you. It’s definitely under your publication.’

To be grand, when a humble apology was clearly in order, was a misstep. Corden himself has always admitted that he has a pompous side: “This arrogant stuff. . . I’ve had that all my life,” he once said.

‘I flip between, ‘Oh really? Oh thanks. Wow. That’s great.” And, “Yes! Of course I am.” ‘

A friend of Corden said the incident was very unfair.

“What happened here is that the restaurateur found that talking about James Corden was really good for business.

“In the real world people are nice to him on the street, all the major networks want to work with him and he makes millions of people around the world laugh.

“A lot of this is driven by sheer jealousy. He has done better than any other British person who has gone to America to try and make the same trip. I suspect he wouldn’t get half the amount of abuse if he wasn’t working class. Many online comments are focused on his weight.’

As Corden said last weekend, he believes many of his opponents are snobs. “I think there’s definitely a world of people who think that someone who went to a high school in High Wycombe and got two GCSEs shouldn’t be doing what I’m doing.”

Speculation that his show’s staff don’t like him and that’s why he wrote old jokes in his scripts has been denied.

I was even told that he personally paid his “team” wages during the pandemic. He will be at the bosom of that ‘work family’ until the summer of 2023 when he signs off with The Late Late Show for the last time.

What the future holds for Corden on this side of the Atlantic is still unclear. One thing is for sure though: waiters can look forward to some generous tips – but omel