James Corden totally lost it cold-calling Oprah on TV

We love it when celebs get a bit star-struck by each other, and even though James Corden has interviewed some of the biggest names on The Late Late Show (weekdays at 12:30aET on CTV), he still gets a bit tongue-tied around the one and only Oprah Winfrey.

When James and his house band were spit-balling ideas for a possible celebrity-run hotel chain (inspired by Pharrell’s recent plunge into real estate), Oprah’s name came up with the idea for an “O-tel” (*slow clap*). Much to everyone’s surprise (including James'), he actually has Oprah’s number saved in his phone, so naturally, when he attempted to call her to pitch the half-baked idea, he freaked out when the woman herself called him back!

His first ring didn’t go through, instead forwarding to the voicemail system, which hilariously began reading out Oprah’s number into his hot mic. He hung up quickly to prevent the legendary talk show host’s number from releasing into the world, but James’s head writer Ian Karmel ribbed him with, “Neil Patrick Harris is going to be hosting this show tomorrow!”

“I don’t think it’s her number though. I think it’s an assistant’s,” James insisted but then the entire crew in the studio fell silent when James’s phone started ringing from an unknown number.

The call cut out before he could answer it, so he tried Oprah’s number again, and lo and behold, the heavens parted and the seas calmed, for our chosen queen answered in her distinctive, inquisitive voice with, “Hello.” Be still our hearts.

 “Look at you! Hey babes,” Oprah answered when James announced himself. How he didn’t have a heart attack at that moment, we will never know because he certainly looked like he was going to. Then James pitched the team’s “O-tel” idea.  And Oprah was naturally like….

via GIPHY

No seriously, that’s what she said. Because of course she did.

“So you know Pharrell has launched a Good Time hotel and no one wants to stay there, but we all have agreed that we would stay in an ‘O-Tel,’” James pitched the idea hard to her. “And the room service menu is like My Favourite Things.”

“Absolutely,” Oprah replied, “and there would be truffles with every room service menu, with eggs, truffles with your French fries.”

“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. 

She finally agreed and through all the commotion, James squealed, “We love you, Oprah! I can’t believe you called back!” But we couldn’t hear her reply, and it seemed as if she might have hung up.

As the entire crew applauded James for somehow actually pulling that off, Ian asked from the sidelines, “How nervous are you?”

“My whole body is sweating!” James panted, pulling at his collar. “I’m in bits!”

“You look like you ran to Santa Barbara to ask her in person!” Ian joked. Look Ian, James just cold-called the Prime Minister of the World. It’s a BIG. DEAL.

Anyway, we can’t wait to sample the truffled French fries at our local O-Tel!

Watch The Late Late Show with James Corden weekdays at 12:30aET on CTV and stream recent episodes here.

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