An ex-flight attendant for British Airways has criticized New York restaurateur Keith McNally after he used a picture of her in an Instagram post that has since been deleted and which criticized James Corden for allegedly being rude to wait for staff and airline employees.
Last week, Corden made news for all the wrong reasons when McNally claimed in a separate Instagram post that the Late Late Show host had been expelled from his SoHo, New York restaurant Balthazar due to his treatment of his workers.
The 44-year-old English comedian was referred to as “the most abusive customer” the restaurant had ever encountered in its 25-year history by McNally. In his October 17 Instagram post, McNally made reference to the code frequently used in the hospitality sector to signify that a menu item is no longer available: “I don’t often 86 a customer.”
Or, in this instance, to show that a client has been blocked. “Today I 86’d Corden. It did not make me laugh,” McNally’s post continued.
Unsurprisingly, the image quickly became popular, and McNally continued the trend by including Corden in a number of her subsequent Instagram photos. A picture of former flight attendant Ellie Toyn was included in one of those posts.
Despite the flight attendant’s unusual response, the post was about McNally’s experience on a recent British Airways flight from New York to London in which the flight attendant apparently told him that she didn’t “much care for Corden” either.
Toyn wasn’t the flight attendant, therefore the apparent implication that she was the crew member being referred to was problematic.
“Tell me how it’s okay for this man to use an image of me without my consent in his drama with (James Corden),” Ellie wrote.
“I’VE NOT WORKED FOR BRITISH AIRWAYS FOR OVER A YEAR, yet he’s using my face as a cover for his story. This is vile behavior and completely thoughtless,” her post continued.
McNally quickly got in touch, saying he didn’t mean to offend Ellie and that he “just wanted to use a random photo of a BA airline attendant to illustrate an incident that recently happened to me flying BA”.
“My post certainly wasn’t about you personally,” McNally wrote. “I just deleted the post. Again, my apologies”.
Following Corden’s on-air apologies on the Late Late Show, McNally stated in his most recent Instagram post about the Corden drama that he was lifting the ban. In fact, McNally claimed in his statement that he had previously done worse than Corden and that he was planning to spend two weeks away from Balthazar.
