Kelly Clarkson says she walked into Art of Play in Brooklyn Heights ready to buy, and instead got the Pretty Woman treatment, with an employee assuming she couldn’t afford the shop’s items and offering to find her something“comparable.”The store tells a different story: the piece she wanted, a one-of-a-kind mechanical bird named Molly, is permanently attached to the wall and was never for sale. They say they offered her a different singing bird automaton for $2,000, but she left before seeing it.
Clarkson wasn’t done. She posted a photo showing a price tag on the bird, calling the store’s version of events a lie and saying they were both rude and dishonest. The shop is co-owned by twin magician brothers Dan and Dave Buck and children’s book author Adam Rubin, which makes the whole thing feel like a feud between a pop superstar and a whimsical Brooklyn institution.
So now the internet gets to play judge. Was it a case of retail workers being dismissive to someone they didn’t recognize? Or a celebrity overreacting and sending a pile-on toward a small business? The receipts are confusing, the bird is still on the wall, and both sides are dug in. Whose story are you believing?
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Local Lawton
Local Lawton is a contributor to LocalBeat, covering local news and community stories.