The Irresistibility of the Asshole Celebrity Anecdote

Step right up, James Corden.

On Monday afternoon, restauranteur Keith McNally, famous for such New York City downtown haunts as Balthazar, Schiller’s, Pastis, Lucky Strike and (my personal favorite) Odeon, went on Instagram to declare that talk show host (and occasional actor) James Corden was permanently banned from any of his restaurants.

The crime: Being rude to the staff. McNally called Corden “the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago. I don’t often 86 a customer, to today I 86'd Corden. It did not make me laugh.” Here’s the money anecdote from McNally:

Mr. Corden’s wife ordered an egg yolk omelette with gruyere cheese and salad. A few minutes after they received the food, James called their server, M. K. and told her there was a little bit of egg white mixed with the egg yolk. M. K. informed the floor manager, G. The kitchen remade the dish but unfortunately sent it with home 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!”

You should know that I love this anecdote. But I love this anecdote for a very specific reason: I don’t like James Corden. I find him…