James Corden’s latest public controversy didn’t go as expected.
On Sunday, the 45-year-old former “Late Late Show” host was photographed appearing to berate a British Airways employee after a rough journey from Faor, Portugal, to Britain, while other passengers rallied around him and insisted he was right.
This is different from his previous public skirmishes.
Corden has previously been in the spotlight for being “disrespectful” to staff at Balthazar restaurant, leading New York restaurateur Keith McNally to ban him from the popular downtown establishment due to his behavior.
Spice Girls’ Mel B also described Corden as “the dumbest person I’ve ever met.”
but, According to the Daily MailPassengers on Corden’s flight claim that the former talk show host kindly advocated for everyone on board when the plane was forced to make an emergency stop due to mechanical issues in the Portuguese city.
Vanessa, the passenger Metro Describing her ordeal during the flight, she said: “It was something like, ‘Pack up as many belongings as you can, take off your shoes, and assume a restrained position when instructed to do so by the aircraft staff. Once we land, if possible, find the nearest emergency exit and exit the plane.'”
She said passengers were told there was no need to prepare any longer, but they spent three hours on the tarmac in Lisbon before the plane was grounded.
According to Vanessa, Corden, who was forced to publicly apologize for his behavior at Balthazar after Balthazar’s owner Keith McNally called him a “little doofus” and “the worst customer he’s had toward a Balthazar server since the restaurant opened 25 years ago,” reportedly kept passengers entertained throughout the tedious ordeal.
“He walked up and down the aisles talking to people and making sure everyone got a selfie with him,” she said.
She added: “I jokingly said, ‘If we all die, can you tell me how the Gavin & Stacey Christmas special ends?'” referring to the popular British sitcom.
“And he said, ‘Do you really want to know?’ And I said, ‘Yes,’ and he said, ‘I can’t tell you.’”
Vanessa claimed Corden had a confrontation with staff after being directed to the wrong row after passengers were evacuated from the plane in Lisbon.
“And then BA finally let us off the plane,” she recalled. “We were in the terminal, there was no BA staff there, and we were made to queue for immigration, and there was no one to tell us what was going on.”
She defended Corden’s actions after photos showed him having what appeared to be a heated argument with airline staff.
“The person he is talking to in the photo is the flight staff of our plane. I saw him shake hands with the pilot as he got off the plane and say, ‘Thank you so much,'” she said.
“James was a regular at the club and he was standing there saying, ‘What’s going to happen to these people with kids?’ It was like he was saying that’s unacceptable, that’s not right,” she alleged, adding that Corden was “standing in the same line as everyone else, doing the same thing as everyone else.”
The Washington Post has reached out to Corden for comment.
