Singer Kelly Clarkson calls Brooklyn shop Art of Play a liar over a $15,000 bird

Kelly Clarkson’s fight with a Brooklyn curiosity shop has been sold as a Pretty Woman sequel: the star, the snooty clerk, the big sale that walked out the door. Put the two sides’ statements next to each other, though, and the story gets smaller and stranger. Both accounts describe nearly the same exchange. They disagree about which bird a price belonged to, and about how one word landed: “comparable.”

That gap is where the shouting now lives. Clarkson has gone from calling an employee an idiot to calling the store a liar, and the store, Art of Play, has answered with a second, longer version of events. Nothing independent has settled which version is right, and the singer’s version reaches a far bigger audience than the shop’s.

What Kelly Clarkson says happened at Art of Play

The first post went up on X, where she has 8.8 million followers. “Just drove all the way to Brooklyn to check out this store I thought looked really rad and had a few things in mind to buy,” she wrote, adding that she “literally was looked at as if I couldn’t afford it” before an employee offered to find her “something comparable.” Her verdict: “Wow, dude. You’re an idiot and just lost a huge sale.” She told followers to visit Art of Play “if you enjoy being treated like Julia Roberts,” a nod to the boutique scene in the 1990 film.

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Art of Play answered on Instagram. It said the object she had asked about was Molly, a singing and dancing bird automaton used in its magic shows, and that “Molly is permanently attached to the wall and isn’t for sale.” The statement was conciliatory in places, granting that the “negative experience Kelly described” would “resonate with anyone who has ever felt judged in a shop” and that all visitors are “equally welcome.” It also said the shop had been “suddenly attacked by 8 million people who have never visited our store,” and signed off with a line from her own catalogue: “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

Clarkson did not accept it. “Sure, it wasn’t for sale. That’s the narrative Art of Play is gonna go with,” she wrote in a follow-up, saying an employee had told her the bird was for sale at $15,000. She shared a grainy photo of a price tag reading “Singing Bird,” along with the line now heading every write-up: “So you’re not only rude, you’re also a liar. Got it.” She also rejected the idea that she was punching down. “You don’t get a free pass to treat people less than in your store just because you are a small business,” she wrote. “It’s not that hard to be kind.” Then the parting shot: “Your store is really cool. Unfortunately, you aren’t.”

Where the two stories overlap

The shop’s second statement is the part most coverage has skimmed. According to TODAY and Newsweek, Art of Play said Clarkson spent about five minutes inside, that the $15,000 figure belonged to a near-identical twin of Molly owned by its maker, the Seattle artist Bliss Kolb, and that staff also offered her a singing bird from a German clockmaker for around $2,000. “She did not stick around long enough to see it,” the shop wrote.

Read against her first post, that is close to a description of the same exchange: a $15,000 price said out loud, then a cheaper option. She heard “something comparable” as a judgment on her wallet. The shop presents it as a second bird. What still divides them is whether the bird on the wall was ever on offer, and Clarkson’s answer to the shop’s version was blunt: “That all never happened and now it’s not for sale.”

Neither side has produced anything that settles it. TODAY reports that it is unclear whether the price-tag photo was taken by Clarkson or is an older image from online, and that Kolb, who lists the bird on his website without a price, did not respond to its request for comment. In February 2025 the store itself called Molly its “mascot,” a delicate and expensive piece that sings and moves when cranked, which is why it carries a “Do Not Touch” sign.

A megaphone against a magic shop

Meanwhile the verdict is being handed down elsewhere. Art of Play, founded by twin brothers Dan and Dave Buck, sells puzzles, games and books and stages magic shows in an attached theater. Since the weekend its Yelp page has filled with both one-star and five-star reviews, and it briefly shared, then deleted, a customer post praising its staff’s kindness. Among the messages it later reposted was one from John Hodgman: “This seems like a very sad misunderstanding.”

The timing matters on Clarkson’s side too. Billboard places the episode in a transitional stretch: The Kelly Clarkson Show aired its series finale in August after seven seasons, and she is back on NBC’s The Voice for its 30th season alongside Adam Levine, Queen Latifah and Riley Green. Her first post went up on Saturday, October 10; the shop’s first statement followed on Sunday, October 11. More than two decades after she won the first season of American Idol, her audience is the biggest asset in the room, and in this dispute it is pointed at a single shop.

The store quoted “Stronger” back at her. The only witness that could close the case is a mechanical bird fixed to a Brooklyn wall, and it only sings when someone turns the crank.

Tags: Art of Play, Brooklyn, celebrity feuds, Kelly Clarkson, Pretty Woman

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