The real reason why even the offer of £40m could not stop Corden returning to the UK
Is time up for James Corden at TV firm that makes his Late Late Show?
JAMES CORDEN turned down a ‘name your price’ multi-year deal from television bosses to stay in the US, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The surprise announcement that he will quit America next year – despite an estimated £40 million offer to remain – has shocked Hollywood.
The comedian revealed he will return to Britain seven years after arriving in Los Angeles amid great fanfare to present The Late Late Show for US broadcasting giant CBS.
Buckinghamshire-born Corden – who made his name on TV’s Gavin & Stacey – is treated like royalty in California, where he enjoys a glittering circle of loyal A-list friends.
The 43-year-old and his wife Julia live with their three children in the exclusive LA suburb of Brentwood. Their £7.5million mansion has five bedrooms, eight bathrooms and a home cinema.
The Cordens are not expected to sell their house in Los Angeles.
Mrs Corden is an interior designer to stars such as the Duchess of Sussex and the couple’s friends include chef Gordon Ramsay and his wife Tana, actress Jennifer Lawrence and singer Adele.
The family revel in the glitzy world of Hollywood so it is a major shock that Corden has decided to walk away from his £7million-a-year role presenting the nightly programme.
On Wednesday evening – just 24 hours before his statement – he
was master of ceremonies at a prestigious star-studded gala for the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
The event, staged by the organisation named after the Nazi hunter, was held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, home of the Golden Globes film and TV awards ceremonies.
At one point Corden introduced his ‘good friend’ Jeffrey Katzenberg – former head of Walt Disney Studios and founder of DreamWorks Studio – who told luminaries, including Maroon 5’s Adam Levine and singer Will.I.Am: ‘There is nobody better than Mr Corden.’
The popular Briton received a standing ovation.
One senior Hollywood executive said of Corden’s departure: ‘Nobody can understand why he’s made this sudden decision to walk away, particularly when he was being offered the Earth to stay.’
Corden’s contract had been set to expire this August, but he has signed an extension that will keep him on the show until next spring – the time he is expected to return to Britain.
Despite getting a further 12 months out of the star, CBS President George Cheeks spoke of his sorrow that he would be losing the presenter. He said shortly after Corden’s announcement: ‘We wish he could stay longer, but we are very proud he made CBS his American home.’
A source close to the presenter was quick to point out that the big-money offer wasn’t something that would have enticed him to stay: ‘He could have gone down the cash route with Gavin and Stacey, taken the cheque and written it for ever, but he chose not to. This is the same.’
In his statement, Corden said he doesn’t want to ‘outstay his welcome’, although his friends cite different reasons, such as the risk
Nobody can understand this decision. He was being offered the Earth to stay
James wants to write, make films. There is a lot more out there
of getting typecast and his fear that his parents in England will grow old without seeing much of his children – Max, 11, Carey, seven, and fouryear-old Charlotte.
Filming four shows each week and recording skits such as his hugely successful ‘Carpool Karaoke’, where he sings along with celebrities such as Michelle Obama and Ed Sheeran while driving around LA in his Range Rover, is time-consuming. The skits, along with those featuring Sir Paul McCartney, Adele and Lady Gaga, have generated more than a billion YouTube views. Adele’s 2016 appearance has more than 250million views.
In February last year, Corden and Prince Harry cruised about LA in a double-decker bus for one sketch which has amassed more than 27 million hits on YouTube.
‘There is no time for anything else,’ a friend of Corden told The Mail on Sunday, hinting that the star is considering branching out into other areas of showbusiness. ‘James wants to write, make films and he loves the theatre. He is only in his early forties. There is a lot more out there.’
Another friend said producing a one-man stage show was on the agenda, too.
Corden also wants to attend matches of his beloved West Ham football team. When he returned to the UK last summer, not only did he cheer on the London side but partied with players Mark Noble and Declan Rice.
Some though, are more sceptical about the reasons for his return.
Last December, The Mail on Sunday revealed there were questions over the future of the television production company Fulwell 73, which makes The Late Late Show.
Documents showed that the umbrella company which owned three other firms was due to be dissolved, which would have meant Corden would no longer be involved
in the business. Freuds, the public relations company hired by Fulwell, refused to answer questions on the matter.
It followed rumours that the star and his best friend of 25 years, Ben Winston, executive producer of The Late Late Show, had fallen out. The two friends left London for Hollywood in January 2015 and are still there working together. Both parties staunchly deny a fallout. Indeed, Winston took to Instagram last week following Corden’s announcement to say that ‘there has been no greater joy than going to work each day with my best mate and the most talented guy in the world’.
Following our story, Fulwell 73 was not dissolved and it remains business as usual.
However, sources reveal that Winston is now too busy to make The Late Late Show – having been recently recruited by the Kardashians to put together their new show for Apple TV, which will be worth millions to him. Winston – the son of fertility expert Lord (Robert) Winston – was behind last year’s reunion of the sitcom Friends, as well as singer Adele’s interview with Oprah Winfrey, which was screened on CBS. He has also produced the Grammy Awards twice.
A well-placed source said: ‘James is famous but so is Ben. He’s the golden boy of Hollywood, despite being behind the camera.
‘He’s constantly offered jobs left, right and centre and being tied to The Late Late Show makes it difficult to take any of them.’ Apart from his Instagram post, Winston is yet to make any comment on the reason behind Corden’s decision to end their reign on The Late Late Show.
The fact the Cordens sold their £6 million house in Hampstead, North London, in April last year was assumed to be another pointer that they were intent on staying in Hollywood. At the time, sources close to the pair said the sale was because the property was too small for their growing family. Around the same time, the couple bought a sprawling estate near Henleyon-Thames. Located by the river, it is a modern five-bedroom house with an indoor pool and an outdoor tennis court. Corden’s sudden decision to quit has also raised eyebrows because his move to the US was a huge risk – and he has proved his doubters wrong in spades. Initially, it was said that motor company Land Rover was reluctant to supply his show with a Range Rover for his Carpool Karaoke skit and the production had to buy their own vehicle. One TV executive has since said: ‘There are a lot of people who now feel a bit silly.’
The Mail on Sunday was with the presenter on the opening night of the show in March 2015, when he was joined by Hollywood veteran Tom Hanks and actress Mila Kunis.
Meryl Streep, Eddie Redmayne, Chris Rock and Simon Cowell also appeared via video link.
Corden was a bag of nerves before he filmed the programme and candid about how he feared it might not work. When the cameras stopped rolling and he celebrated with a glass of champagne, he confided he was ‘the luckiest man alive’ to have landed such a gig, acknowledging he had a ‘long slog’ ahead. He also said: ‘If you had told me as a 12-year-old that I would be here now, my head would have exploded.’
But it is perhaps some heartfelt comments that Corden made at an awards ceremony in the run-up to his opening night that give an insight into his thinking.
He said: ‘I don’t know if the show will succeed but I’ll give it everything I’ve got. I accepted the job because I don’t ever want to have any regrets in life. If you don’t try, you don’t know.’
Time will tell whether his decision to quit America and return to Britain will be one he lives to regret – or a turning point in a career which has already had more remarkable twists and turns than any movie script.