In a whirlwind number of hours, James Corden was banned - and then unbanned - from a famous New York City restaurant. Then Corden "apologised profusely" - only to take back the apology.

Yeah, it's getting messy. Here's everything you need to know about this unfolding drama.

For years, the late night TV host andGavin & Staceyactor was best known as a self-deprecating funny Brit - and the guy who does Carpool Karaoke .Now he's renowned as a bit of a d*ck.

So, when news that he had been banned from NYC establishment Balthazar after behaving rudely on multiple occasions, according to the owner, was responded to with, well, resounding "duhs".

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Corden was put on blast publicly by restaurateur Keith McNally, owner of highly acclaimed French brasserie Balthazar in Manhattan.

On October 17, McNally posted a photo of Corden to his Instagram account, calling him a "cretin of a man" who had behaved so badly on at least two occasions that he felt the need to publicly out him.

"James Corden is a hugely gifted comedian, but a tiny cretin of a man. And the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago," McNally said.

In the first alleged incident, in June, McNally said Corden demanded two free rounds of drinks for him and his friends after he presented a hair that was found on his food.

McNally claimed the talk-show host said: "Get us another round of drinks this second. And also take care of all of our drinks so far," adding, "This way I [won't] write any nasty reviews in Yelp or anything like that."

In another alleged episode on October 9, McNally said Corden flipped out when the egg yolk omelette his wife had ordered was found to have a little egg white in it.

The kitchen remade the dish but accidentally sent it out with 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!'" McNally wrote.

He said Corden's server was extremely apologetic and brought over the floor manager.

The dish was returned and Corden received promo Champagne glasses "to smooth things over".

McNally said the server was "very shaken, but professional that she is, continued to finish her shift".

McNally's post had received more than 17,000 likes in just five hours, with thousands of comments praising him for outing bad behaviour towards hospitality staff.

However, in a twist that occurred only nine hours after the original post (which has still not been deleted), McNally shared another equally blurry picture of James Corden with an update.

In the caption he explained that Corden had called him to apologise, and he is now ready to forgive him.

"James Corden just called me and apologised profusely," McNally wrote. "Having fucked up myself more than most people, I strongly believe in second chances. So if James Corden lets me host hisLate Late Showfor 9 months, I’ll immediately rescind his ban from Balthazar. No, of course not.

"But... anyone magnanimous enough to apologize to a deadbeat layabout like me (and my staff) doesn’t deserve to be banned from anywhere. Especially Balthazar. So come back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Corden, Jimmy Corden. All is forgiven."

Despite the semi-retraction, the post only added more noise to the now almost universally accepted idea that Corden is not 'nice' (and raised questions about if the apology extended to those who deserve it most - the servers).

Just when we all thought the drama had blown over, in a following interview with the New York Times, Corden addressed his restaurant behaviour and admitted he found the situation "so silly."

"I haven't done anything wrong, on any level. So why would I ever cancel this [interview]? I was there. I get it," Corden said. "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."

When asked if he was "aware" of the conversation surrounding him currently, he said he might "have to talk about it" on his show.

"I haven’t really read anything. It’s strange. It’s strange when you were there," he said. "I think I’m probably going to have to talk about it on Monday’s show. My feeling, often, is, never explain, never complain. But I’ll probably have to talk about it."

Not only did Corden feel the dialogue surrounding his behaviour was uncalled for, he also went on to say "not one person" had approached him while walking around New York City.

"Should we not all be a little grown-up about this?" he said. "I promise you, ask around this restaurant. They don’t know about this. Maybe 15 per cent of people. I’ve been here, been walking around New York, not one person’s come up to me. We’re dealing in two wor