It's hard to think of James Corden being anything other than a Stateside YouTube sensation thanks to his gig as host of The Late Late Show and pioneer of Carpool Karaoke. But it was only seven years ago that he was hosting the Glamour Woman of the Year Awards.
At the time, Corden wasn't the transatlantic-accented, preened, Hollywood go-getter we see on our news feeds today. He was, like many celebrities, coming through a rough patch.
The Hillingdon-born actor had been making headlines for his drinking over his work, and it's not hard to see why. Corden managed to tarnish his reputation built upon the critically-lauded Gavin & Stacey by slugging out the critically slaughtered sketch show Horne and Corden, and horror-comedy Lesbian Vampire Killers.
Image: Glamour
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By the time he stepped up to host the Glamour Woman of the Year Awards, things came to a bit of a public head, even factoring in that this was post-rehab.
There was no, and still isn't, any real context to why this incident happened, but we shouldn't care. We should just be thankful that it did happen, and that cameras caught it for posterity.
From that video-graphical proof, we can see that Sir Patrick Stewart, probably more than three sheets to the wind, had decided prior to getting up to the podium that Corden hadn't been doing hosting any justice.
"When the presenters are up here and when the recipients are receiving their rewards," Stewart says, "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."
Image: Glamour
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"Oh! You couldn't be more wrong, sir." Corden reassures Stewart, somewhat spuriously. "You couldn't be more wrong. Genuinely. And if it looked like that, I'm so sorry. But when you come up and present an award, just fucking get on with it."
And thus the public celeb showdown we didn't think we ever needed was born.
The Star Trek actor wasn't done. Instead, he dug deeper into Corden's ego, joking: "From where I was sitting, I can see your belly, and that was there over at the back of the room."
Corden chimed in, following an awkward pause: "You can see my belly, and we can all see you dying [on stage] right now. Let's go for it."
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At this point, those in attendance were jeering, on the edge of their seats, wondering whether this verbal come was actually going to come to blows.
Image: Glamour
"One more?" Stewart asks the audience, unfazed. "Do you want one more?" He was 70 at the time of filming.
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"If you fancy the Jonas Brothers," he says, turning his body to the cross-armed Corden, "cover your belly."
It was an astonishingly anti-climatic end to the probably the only banter the Glamour Woman of the Year Awards has ever and will ever see.
Video: ODE/Glamour
Corden, on the other hand, got to have the last laugh when winner Zoe Saldana came up on stage to compliment his belly.
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Corden later confessed to Rob Brydon that he was bewildered by the confrontation after giving him a superlative introduction.
The following year, the two actors made up for a comedy sketch in which they played a couple. Stewart has since appeared on Corden's chat show in the US.
Featured Image Credit: GlamourTopics: James Corden