Through his British celebrity, talk show, and film career, James Corden knows just about
everybody in the entertainment industry, but not everybody in the entertainment industry
likes him. Here are some of the people who seemingly can't stand James Corden.
At the end of a 2019 episode of his HBO show Real Time, Bill Maher discussed high obesity
rates. His solution: make people feel bad about themselves for being overweight.
"Fat shaming doesn't need to end, it needs to make a comeback. Some amount of shame is
good."
A few days later, James Corden took nearly eight minutes at the top of an episode of
The Late Late Show to address Maher's remarks:
"So I sat at home and I'm watching this and all I could think of, I was like, oh, man,
somebody needs to say something about this! If only there was someone with a platform
who knew what it was actually like to be overweight, and then I realized, 'Oh, that will be me.'"
Corden reminded Maher that fat-shaming was still alive and well, adding that,
"There's a common and insulting misconception that fat people are stupid and lazy, and we're
not."
Following Corden's plea for basic human decency, Maher fell back on his comments about obesity
as a health issue. He said on episode of The Joe Rogan Experience:
"You can't keep eating as much as you want and as s----- of food as you want and expect
us to cover the bill."
He then went on to say that Corden, quote, "missed a great opportunity to literally save
lives [...] and took the easy way out" by criticizing the Real Time host.
In 2017, a sea change in Hollywood took place, with the #MeToo movement and other organizations
calling out men for decades of unchecked offenses of a sexual nature. Arguably the biggest catalyst
was an October 5 New York Times story that revealed numerous allegations against studio
mogul Harvey Weinstein. The entertainment industry was left shocked and reeling, and
James Corden failed enormously to read the proverbial room. On October 13, 2017, he hosted
a black-tie charity gala event for the AIDS research foundation amfAR, and he peppered
his monologue with several jokes about Weinstein. According to The Guardian, for example, he
called the evening so lovely that Weinstein, quote, "has already asked tonight up to his
hotel to give him a massage." Then he cracked:
"It has been weird this week hasn't it, watching Harvey Weinstein in hot water. Ask any of
the women who watched him take a bath, it's weird watching Harvey Weinstein in hot water."
Two of the women who accused Weinstein of deplorable acts of sexual violence didn't
think Corden's jokes were all that funny. Asia Argento tweeted:
"Shame on this pig and everyone who grunted with him."
Rose McGowan called Corden a, quote, "motherf---ing piglet."
Corden later apologized via a statement on Twitter, writing:
"I was not trying to make light of Harvey's inexcusable behavior, but to shame him, the
abuser, not his victims. I am truly sorry for anyone offended, that was never my intention."
In many ways, Ricky Gervais and James Corden have lived out parallel careers. Both are
comedians who came to prominence on British television shows they starred in and created
in the 2000s —The Office and Gavin and Stacey, respectively — before jumping to movies,
and eventually, hosting American TV productions; Gervais hosts the annual Golden Globes, while
James Corden hosts The Late Late Show.
According to a source close to the situation in The Sun, the seeds of a nasty rivalry were
planted when Corden played Gervais on his 2009 sketch comedy series Horne and Corden.
In the sketch in question, Corden portrays Gervais as if he were cast as The Karate Kid
instead of Ralph Macchio in the 1984 classic. With his interpretation, we see the fictional
Gervais talking over his fellow actor's lines and even the director's constructive criticism
— a pretty overt jab at the real Gervais and his propensity for interrupting people
with snide remarks.
In the years since, Gervais has publicly teased and criticized Corden on multiple occasions.
As The Sun's source said:
"Ricky is now somewhat obsessed, attacking James when his jokes fall flat and poking
fun of his size."
For example, after Corden bombed with those Harvey Weinstein jokes at the amfAR gala just
days after the producer was exposed as a serial abuser, Gervais told Radio Andy that Corden,
quote, "didn't do it well enough." And at the 2020 Golden Globes, Gervais quipped:
"The world got to see James Corden as a fat p---y. He was also in the movie Cats, but
no one saw that."
James Corden hosted the 2010 Glamour Women of the Year Awards, and a presenter that evening
was another well-known entertainer: Sir Patrick Stewart. When the Star Trek icon got to the
stage, he thought it was the right time and place to lay into Corden's stage demeanor
between hosting segments. Stewart instructed:
"When the presenters are up here and when the recipients are receiving their awards,
don't stand at the back of the stage with your hands in your pockets looking around
as though you wished you were anywhere but here."
Corden tried to keep the show moving, apologizing if he appeared bored, adding:
"But when you come up and present an award, just f---ing get on with it."
Stewart didn't get on with it. Instead, the actor said:
"From where I was sitting, I can see your belly, and that was right there over at the
back of the room."
To this, Corden replied:
"You can see my belly, and we can all see you dying right now."
Stewart's final retort was a quip to, quote, "cover your belly," which made Corden wince
in embarrassment, but not necessarily his own.
Stewart later apologized. A representative told The Sun:
"Patrick felt awful about the ugliness. He had had a drink, his new girlfriend was there,
and he just got carried away."
They eventually joked about the spat in a sketch for a Channel 4 charity special.
Hollyoaks is one of British television's most popular soap operas, airing in the early evenings
on Channel 4 since 1995. It takes place in the fictional Chester suburb of Hollyoaks,
and, like most daily dramas on both sides of the Atlantic, concerns the romantic and
relationship entanglements of primarily young and attractive people. Ricky Whittle, best
known to American audiences for his work on The 100 and American Gods, played constable
and nightclub operator Calvin Valentine on the series from 2006 to 2011. During this
time period, James Corden, who appeared on one episode of the soap in 2000, fired some
verbal shots at the series in an interview with Esquire, saying:
"I'd actually rather die than go back. It's f---ing awful. It just breeds p----- – all
these people walking around with this chicken-in-a-basket fame, talking about going to L.A., you know?"
Whittle threw the nasty shade right back at Corden in an interview with whatsontv, ultimately
threatening him:
"It's very childish that he's slating the place where he came from, the place that made
him [...] Good luck to him, I hope he doesn't bump into us on a night out!"
Every late night show has a signature schtick, a recurring comedy bit that keeps fans tuning
in year after year. For Jimmy Kimmel Live, it's celebrities reading mean tweets about
themselves. For The Late Late Show with James Corden, it's the host and an extremely famous
singer driving around Los Angeles in a car singing along to the musician's own songs
in a segment called "Carpool Karaoke." It's Corden's most popular contribution to the
culture by far, and the likes of Adele, Britney Spears, and Lady Gaga have taken part.
"How are you feeling about that?"
"Pretty good, man."
In a 2017 interview with GQ, Liam Gallagher, the former lead singer of '90s alternative
rock sensation Oasis, said that if asked, he would not do Karaoke. He even worked an
apparent jab at Corden's show, Gavin and Stacey, into his response, seemingly misnaming it
on purpose:
"No thank you very much. No f---ing chance mate. With that fat bloke from Kevin and Perry?
[...] James Corden is a knobhead."
When the Daily Beast asked Corden if he'd caught wind of Gallagher's remarks, the host
said he had. And then, Corden offered up a sarcasm-drenched response:
"I don't know how we'll even think of carrying on. Yeah, God, what will we do?"
Jack Allison wrote for Jimmy Kimmel Live in the 2010s, and as such, he's a member of the
Writers Guild of America. In 2019, he told a story on Twitter about the time he went
to a union meeting that James Corden also attended:
"I'd like to state once again for the record that I went to a WGA meeting for only late
night writers, and James Corden showed up without any of his staffers to advocate for
a lower pay grade for late night writers."
That means, according to Allison, Corden apparently made a special trip to ask a trade union to
allow him to decrease the salaries of his own employees at The Late Late Show. Allison
claimed that Corden wanted to hire "writers assistants" for 13-week stretches instead
of for longer periods as contracted, full-fledged writers. By WGA rules, this would carry a
higher salary. Allison went on to tweet:
"He was framing it positively as 'we want to give writers assistants a chance so maybe
there should be a lower pay grade for them.'"
According to Allison, WGA officials quickly dismissed Corden's request. However, Corden
related a different version of events on Twitter:
"I would never ever want to pay a writer less than they deserve. Never. I love every writer
on my show and all I ever wanted from that meeting was to explore whether talented people
could get a better opportunity."
Despite this statement, Allison dug his heels in, tweeting:
"What I said was accurate."
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