James Corden may not be taking over as host of The Late Late Show until next month, but we think it's safe to assume that One Direction will be among his first guests.
Harry Styles, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson appeared earlier this month in the first television promo for Corden's debut on March 23.
"I've known them for a long time, that band, and I love them all very much," Corden told me last night at Vanity Fair and Fiat's Young Hollywood party, which he co-hosted with the magazine's Krista Smith. "I class them all as friends and I've known Louis since before he was in One Direction."
Corden's Late Late Show executive producer Ben Winston is 1D's longtime video and documentary director.
"Ben and I actually wrote one of their music videos," Corden said. "We get on great. They're really great friends.
"They had a month off—could you imagine what their lives are like or how many people ask for their time?—so we just called and said, 'Look, we've got this idea…Can we come for 20 minutes and just do it and they all just went, 'Of course. Yeah, absolutely,'" said Corden, who starred opposite Emily Blunt and Meryl Streep as The Baker in Into the Woods. "They're really special boys. I love them very much. I can't wait for them to come on the show."
We can't either.
Come Sunday, Corden is hoping Richard Linklater goes home with the Oscar for best director for Boyhood. "I'm a huge fan of his," he said. "I love Boyhood. I really think it's a special film. People say things are unique a lot of the time and they're not. To be unique is to be like no other and that's what that film is."
Too bad Corden isn't on the air just yet because we'd love to have seen the fun he would have had with Fifty Shades of Grey.
He hasn't seen the erotic movie yet, but said, "I cannot wait. I'm a huge fan of Jamie Dornan's," he said, before cracking, "And I love bondage. I'm just worried that it won't be dark enough for me. I'm into some quite dark stuff."