James Corden got a surprise from Oprah Winfrey on the latest edition of his US chat show.
The Gavin & Stacey star opened Tuesday’s episode of The Late, Late Show by discussing the news that Pharrell Williams has opened a new hotel in Miami called The Goodtime Hotel.
He then discussed with his house band which celebrity they would like to see open a hotel next, with drummer Guillermo E. Brown suggesting Oprah.
After guitarist Tim Young came up with the name “O-tel”, someone off-camera suggested James contact Oprah to pitch the genius idea.
Pulling his phone out of the desk drawer, he realised he still had Oprah’s number saved from a time she once called him.
However, his call was forwarded to a voicemail system, which began reading out Oprah’s number into his microphone.
As James quickly hung up to stop the TV legend’s number being broadcast to the world, Ian Karmel joked: “Neil Patrick Harris is going to be hosting this show tomorrow!”
But to James’ amazement, his phone then started ringing – with Oprah returning his call from a withheld number.
After missing the call out of sheer surprise, James then had to call Oprah back again, and this time she actually answered.
“Look at you! Hey babes,” Oprah answered.
As James then pitched the team’s “O-tel” idea, Oprah said: “Absolutely, and there would be truffles with every room service menu, with eggs, truffles with your French fries.”
James said: “All we ask is that we can all stay for free when you open it, is that OK?”
“OK... How many people are coming?” Oprah inquired. “Why not? We’re going to make billions of dollars, of course I’ll let everybody stay for free.”
“We love you, Oprah!” James said. “I can’t believe you called back!”
We can’t wait to check in to the “O-tel”.