Kelly Clarkson and Brooklyn shop Art of Play trade accusations over $15,000 mechanical bird

A visit that became a public row

On Saturday, 10 October, Kelly Clarkson visited Art of Play, a novelty toy and games shop in the Cobble Hill neighbourhood of Brooklyn, and asked about Molly, a wooden singing and dancing bird attached to the wall. The price tag read $15,000. According to the store, Clarkson stayed about five minutes, and an employee suggested she could buy an identical bird for the same price. Clarkson later posted on X that staff had looked at her as if she could not afford the bird and had offered to find something comparable. She wrote that the shop had treated her like a character from a famous romantic comedy.

Y'all should go check out Art of Play in Brooklyn if you enjoy being treated like Julia Roberts' character in Pretty Woman

The post set off a wave of attention online, and fans flooded the shop's online reviews and comment sections with negative statements.

The store's response and the price of alternatives

On Sunday, 11 October, Art of Play answered on Instagram, saying Molly was permanently fixed to the wall and was not for sale. The store argued that the negative experience Clarkson described would resonate with anyone who has ever felt judged in a shop, while complaining about the scale of the reaction. It said that its small business had been overwhelmed by a sudden flood of online criticism.

Imagine our surprise when our small local business was suddenly attacked by eight million people who have never visited our store.

The store also said that the creator of the bird, Bliss Kolb, who lives in Seattle, was willing to sell a near-identical automaton for $15,000. It added that it had offered Clarkson a different singing bird for $2,000, from a clockmaking shop in Germany, which she could have bought that same day. The store said she did not stay long enough to see it.

Clarkson hits back

Clarkson responded that evening, on Sunday, 11 October, by posting a screenshot of the store's statement and disputing its claim that the bird was not for sale. She said she had asked whether Molly was for sale while pointing at the price tag on the wall. According to her account, the staff member replied that it was for sale at $15,000 and offered to find her something comparable, in a condescending tone. Her follow-up also described her criticism as a considered step, and she said she had rarely called out anyone publicly.

I never blast people but you my friend were an exception.

In the same follow-up she wrote that the store was really cool, but that it was not, in her view, cool to treat customers that way. She said she supported small businesses and that the shop did not get a free pass because it was small.

Threats, and the owner's account

The store's owner has said that he and his staff have faced threats and harassment since Clarkson's complaint. On Tuesday, 13 October, Adam Rubin, one of the shop's three owners, spoke to reporters and said that Clarkson "has put us in danger." Security footage of the incident was released that same night by independent journalist Pablo Torre. Social media users then noticed that Rubin is the author of more than a dozen children's books, including Dragons Love Tacos, and a Penguin Random House bio describes those books as having sold over 5 million copies combined.

Where things stand

When the BBC visited the shop on Wednesday, 14 October, it found more reporters than customers. Molly still hung on the wall, now beside a sign that read a price of $15m, and another sign described the bird as the "world's most famous singing bird automata". A shopkeeper said the store would not comment further and wanted to return to business as usual. The dispute has been widely covered by outlets including the New York Times, the Guardian and Rolling Stone, according to TheJournal.ie.