It's been a difficult few weeks for James Corden, but luckily for him, Jeremy Clarkson has chimed up with some advice on how best to cure his 'c*** flu'.
Corden made headlines after a New York restaurant owner barred him and labelled him a 'tiny cretin of a man' over his alleged treatment of staff.
The incident took place on 9 October, but the story has rumbled on since, with Corden initially denying he'd done anything wrong before issuing an apology, and owner Keith McNally flitting between forgiveness and contempt.
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Then, just as the news cycle seemed to be moving on, he was accused of ripping off a Ricky Gervais joke word for word on The Late Late Show.
And one man who knows what it's like to attract negative press is Jeremy Clarkson. Indeed, complaining about an omelette is pretty vanilla, compared to smacking someone over a steak.
Writing for The Times, the 62-year-old admitted he's behaved like a 'prat' in the past and said he was not surprised that Corden was being labelled 'a disgusting, bad-tempered plagiarist who's even more up his own bottom than Harry Markle'.
He wrote: "When everyone always sends a car to pick you up and there are hot and cold running assistants, eager to indulge your every whim, it's very easy to become a monster.
"You start to think that you don’t ever have to do anything for yourself, or meet anyone who might be dull. One of my friends, who's in a very successful band, calls this 'c*** flu'.
"Another, who's in an even more successful band, tells me that to try and normalise themselves after a tour, he and his bandmates would rent a house, on their own, for two weeks, and they'd do all their own cooking and washing before going home to their families."
If he wants to boost his popularity before returning to these shores, Clarkson recommended he take a page out of the same book.
"Soon though, he's coming back to the UK to become an actor again," he wrote.
"This is a good thing. He's far better at being someone else than he is at being himself.
"I saw him once in One Man, Two Guvnors and he was fantastic. Much better than he is as a presenter.
"But if he wants to be liked when he gets here, he should stop off on the way home in a place where he isn't known — Dortmund perhaps — and spend a couple of months putting his own bins out and making his own bed.
"It worked for me. Well, it would have done if I'd tried it."
Topics: James Corden, Jeremy Clarkson, Celebrity
Jake Massey