{"id":802217,"date":"2026-10-14T10:22:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T10:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/802217\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T10:22:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T10:22:15","slug":"kelly-clarkson-saga-escalates-again-as-brooklyn-toy-shop-owner-says-singer-put-us-in-danger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/802217\/","title":{"rendered":"Kelly Clarkson saga escalates again as Brooklyn toy shop owner says singer \u2018put us in danger\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Kelly Clarkson<\/a> has been accused by the co-owner of a New York City toy shop<\/a> of putting its staff in \u201cdanger.\u201d<\/p>\n

A dispute between the two parties has been rumbling since this weekend, when the 44-year-old \u201cBreakaway\u201d singer <\/a>shared in an X post to her eight million followers that she had visited Brooklyn games store Art of Play and interacted with a \u201crude\u201d sales associate in an experience she compared to a famous scene in Pretty Woman.<\/a><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Adam Rubin, one of the shop\u2019s three co-owners, answered questions from a scrum of reporters.<\/p>\n

According to New York<\/a> magazine, Rubin described the situation as an \u201cinsane misunderstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cNothing happened in this shop to justify her scolding our shopkeeper on the way out, but I can let that go. You know, everybody has a bad day. But things changed when she used her platform to attack us. It\u2019s asymmetrical social warfare.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"KellyKelly Clarkson has been accused of \u2018asymmetrical social warfare\u2019 by a NY toy shop (NBC\/The Kelly Clarkson Show)<\/p>\n

Rubin said that Clarkson had visited on an occasion when the store was busy, and had been assisted by staff who offered to show her a variety of products. \u201cShe was in the shop for less than five minutes,\u201d he said. \u201cIf this tweetstorm had not happened, we wouldn\u2019t have realized there was a negative interaction in the shop; it was that undramatic. We treated her like a normal person, but apparently that didn\u2019t live up to her expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to strongly criticize Clarkson for directing her large social media following at the store, saying: \u201cKelly Clarkson has put us in danger. People are getting threatened on the street, and the worst part is we didn\u2019t know this was going to happen but Kelly Clarkson did. Anyone who expresses admiration, positivity, or sympathy for Art of Play is getting attacked by trolls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Workers did receive the backing of the local community, said Rubin, who added: \u201cPeople were coming by almost entirely in support. On Monday, when we were closed, people were bringing pastries and cupcakes, according to the press that was staked out here. But our friends are getting attacked, and our fans are getting attacked. We\u2019re concerned on behalf of our shopkeepers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Molly,Molly, a singing and dancing mechanical bird created by artist Bliss Kolb, has found itself at the center of the online furore (AP)<\/p>\n

Rubin explained that Art of Play has received numerous threatening calls and online comments, saying of the trolls: \u201cThey\u2019re calling. They\u2019re emailing. They\u2019re leaving reviews on every platform, they\u2019re review-bombing, they\u2019re attacking anyone who mentions us on social media. They\u2019re shouting, they\u2019re screaming. They show up, they shout, \u2018You\u2019re racially profiling Kelly Clarkson!\u2019 This was out on the sidewalk, so neighbors called the police, and when they filmed the neighbors their followers doxxed the neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shop owner added that on Sunday they \u201cturned off the phone\u201d but they continued to receive a stream of negative comments. \u201cThere\u2019s so much hate speech, so many threats of violence,\u201d he said. \u201cIf an actual customer tries to get in touch with us right now, they will never be able to.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the shop earlier posted a statement stating that the wooden bird automaton that Clarkson had been interested in was not for sale, the singer and former talk show host doubled down and responded: \u201cSo you\u2019re not only rude, you\u2019re also a liar. Got it.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,11373,263496,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-802217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-kelly-clarkson","tag-kelly-clarkson-brooklyn-dispute","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}