Kelly Clarkson and a Brooklyn Shop Trade Accusations Over a $15,000 Singing Bird

The dispute started Saturday on X, where Kelly Clarkson wrote that she had driven to Brooklyn to visit Art of Play, a shop she thought looked interesting, and was treated as though she could not afford anything inside. She compared the experience to Julia Roberts’s character in Pretty Woman, said an employee offered to find her something comparable, and told her followers the store had lost a large sale.

Art of Play answered on Instagram with a different account. The store said Clarkson had asked about buying Molly, a one-of-a-kind singing and dancing bird automaton used in the magic shows it hosts, which is fixed to the wall and not for sale. It acknowledged that the feeling she described would resonate with anyone who has been judged in a shop, then noted the strangeness of a small local business being attacked by people who had never visited it.

Clarkson returned Sunday night on Instagram Stories, disputing that version. She said she had pointed at a price tag on the wall labelled Singing Bird and was told the item cost $15,000, in a tone she called condescending. She described the store as rude and dishonest, and added that supporting small businesses does not exempt them from treating customers decently.

What is left is an argument conducted entirely in public, where one post from a famous customer can pull a local shop in front of a national audience overnight, and where neither side’s account can be settled by the people watching.