James Corden improbably cold-calls Oprah on The Late Late Show, pitches half-baked business idea

James Corden cold-calls Oprah — (Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/The Late Late Show)

Nobody on James Corden's Late Late Show wants to stay at Pharrell Williams' new lifestyle hotel in Miami. "I knew Pharrell had money to burn," Corden said Tuesday night. "I did not know he had open-a-hotel-during-a-global-pandemic money to burn." But "if you could pick a celebrity to open a hotel, whose would you want to stay in?" he asked his band. Drummer Guillermo Brown picked Oprah Winfrey, to general agreement, and guitarist Tim Young even came up with a name, "O-tel."

The next challenge was trying to contact Oprah, and it wasn't flawless — "Neil Patrick Harris is going to be hosting this show tomorrow!" sidekick Ian Karmel said after Corden nearly broadcast Winfrey's possible phone number to the world — or fruitless. Watch below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.