Lily Allen did not hold back when she was asked to name the one celebrity who she recalled being a “beg friend”.
The pop singer was speaking on her BBC podcast Miss Me? with longtime friend, presenter and co-host Miquita Oliver when they took a call from a listener who wondered if they had any “surprise beg friends” who were also famous.
A “beg friend” can be defined as someone who tries to earn the friendship and attention of someone who is, well, not very interested.
“Yeah, James Corden was a bit of a beg friend, for me,” The Fear singer said in response.
“[He] came on my chat show and was very flirtatious with me, and we sort of made friends and I introduced him to a group of my friends.”
Lily Allen And Friends aired back in 2008, hosting the likes of Mark Ronson, Louis Walsh, David Mitchell and Robert Webb across eight episodes.
The singer went on that while that period of her life was “a bit hazy”, she believed the Gavin And Stacey actor had written that she was “leading him on or something” in his 2011 memoir, adding, “which I definitely wasn’t”.
“I’d say if I’ve ever had a famous beggy friend it was James Corden, back in the day,” the artist went on. “He’s not begging me anymore. I’m not begging him either... I can’t do anything for him now. He’s good.”
The Late Late Show host and The Smile singer first met at the premiere of his film The History Boys film in 2006.
“She’s confident, funny and intelligent,” Corden wrote in his book, May I Have Your Attention, Please? (per The Independent). “We got talking at the party after the film and she asked me for my phone number, which was a bit embarrassing as I was standing with my girlfriend at the time.”
The Emmy winner went on: “Given where I was at the time, with my ego starting to spiral out of control, a broken heart trying to nurse itself with empty one-night stands and a complete lack of understanding of my position in the world, this was right up my street. I made it my aim to make Lily mine.”
James added that he “blatantly” and “publicly” flirted with Lily while appearing on her talk show, but later admitted to having “badly I’d misread the signs. There was no me and Lily, it was all in my mind”.
In recent years, the actor has been accused of behaving in an “extremely nasty” manner to staff on two at a New York restaurant, which he later apologised for.
On another occasion, he was accused of copying old jokes by Ricky Gervais on his talk show, but went on to claim that he’d “inadvertently told a brilliant Ricky Gervais joke” on his show.