{"id":928295,"date":"2026-10-14T21:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T21:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/928295\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T21:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T21:38:10","slug":"shop-owner-says-kelly-clarkson-tried-to-destroy-our-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/928295\/","title":{"rendered":"Shop Owner Says Kelly Clarkson Tried to ‘Destroy Our Business\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThree days after Kelly Clarkson<\/a> started a public feud with the Brooklyn game shop Art of Play, the story is still ricocheting around the internet, with supporters on both sides weighing in on social media. But inside the tiny shop at the western end of Atlantic Avenue, just steps from an on-ramp for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, things are placid and drama-free.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the door swings closed on a sunny Tuesday afternoon, muffling the sounds of traffic, the nook of curiosities comes alive. The theme pretty much boils down to: stuff that makes people stop and go, \u201cOooohhh!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThree small tables in the center of the store hold artisanal puzzles, toys, and magic-themed games, from a bowl of colored spinning tops that start at $30 to a $265 kinetic sculpture built out of chrome-finished sticks. Floor-to-ceiling shelves are stacked with fine hardcover books, wooden xylophones, ticking clocks, and high-tech speakers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn fact, you have to really look to find the star of the moment, a six-inch-tall hand-carved animatronic bird affixed to the wall and attached to a box and crank with a delicate \u201cDo not touch\u201d tag. A manager makes an introduction: \u201cThere\u2019s the world-famous Molly over there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was for want of Molly that Clarkson first called out Art of Play, claiming she was treated poorly after she inquired about purchasing the novelty artwork, which at the time boasted a $15,000 price tag. Clarkson alleged on X that an employee tried to direct her to a less expensive item, and likened her experience<\/a> to the famed Pretty Woman scene where Julia Roberts\u2019 sex worker Vivian is turned away from a Rodeo Drive boutique by snooty saleswomen. When the store responded that the bird wasn\u2019t for sale, Clarkson doubled down, and her nearly 9 million followers jumped into the fray.<\/p>\n

\n\tCo-owner Adam Rubin tells Rolling Stone the online attention has led to threatening messages over the phone, abusive DMs, review bombs, intrusive influencers filming in the store, and vitriol hurled at store employees and passersby \u2014\u00a0including one incident where the police had to be called. (The spat has also led to no shortage of media coverage, including a crush of reporters who had been awaiting Rubin as he arrived to open the shop earlier this same morning.) \u201cKelly Clarkson knew that she was lighting that fuse when she decided to use her fame and wealth on a public platform to try to destroy our business,\u201d he says. \u201cShe chose to do it anyway.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe Art of Play \u201ccuriosity shop\u201d in Brooklyn called out by Kelly Clarkson.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJulia Weeks\/AP<\/p>\n

\n\tBut for now, the store is quiet. A family sits at a small table in the back of the shop doing crafts, while two separate women scour the shelves for birthday gifts. I ask one of the shoppers, who declined to give her name, about the Clarkson feud. \u201cWho?\u201d she replies. \u201cWhat happened?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRubin says community members and small business owners who work near the shop have been supportive in the wake of the furor. Many, he says, have dropped off gifts, pastries, and notes of encouragement since Clarkson\u2019s posts. <\/p>\n

\n\tAnd while Rubin told reporters he\u2019s upped Molly\u2019s price (sarcastically, we presume) to $15 million due to \u201cpopular demand,\u201d he otherwise seems eager to take the temperature down on the feud. He says he\u2019s focused on translating the outsize attention Clarkson has given Art of Play into more support for its initiatives (the store also operates as a nighttime performance space for magicians) and for the other small businesses that surround it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is a place designed for wonder,\u201d says Rubin, who\u2019s also the author of the popular children\u2019s book Dragons Love Tacos. \u201cWe work directly with artisans all around the world. People come in in a bad mood and leave in a better mood.\u201d When I ask if he would ever welcome Clarkson \u2014\u00a0who famously left in a bad mood \u2014\u00a0back, he\u2019s quick to respond: \u201cAbsolutely.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tAs I turn to leave, a woman in an olive dress and a gray-streaked crop of curls steps past me at the door, arms open wide and a sympathetic look on her face.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI know!\u201d Rubin exclaims as he goes to hug her. \u201cCan you believe this shit?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three days after Kelly Clarkson started a public feud with the Brooklyn game shop Art of Play, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":928296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134,10064],"class_list":["post-928295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-kelly-clarkson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=928295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/928296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=928295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=928295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=928295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}