{"id":371072,"date":"2026-10-12T15:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T15:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/371072\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T15:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T15:58:09","slug":"new-york-store-art-of-play-says-kelly-clarkson-spent-5-minutes-inside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/371072\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Store Art of Play Says Kelly Clarkson Spent 5 Minutes Inside"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe New York store that Kelly Clarkson accused<\/a> of giving her the Pretty Woman treatment has responded again to her claims.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019d like to clarify some additional details about Kelly Clarkson<\/a>\u2019s visit to our Curiosity Shop on Saturday,\u201d the store posted on Instagram on Monday morning. \u201cDuring the 5 minutes she spent in the store, she inquired about our mechanical bird puppet named Molly. We explained that while Molly is permanently attached to the wall and serves as a de facto mascot for our shop, a nearly identical automaton is owned by the creator of the machines, a brilliant artist named Bliss Kolb who lives in Seattle. He told us he would be willing to part with Molly\u2019s twin for $15,000. We explained all of this to Kelly Clarkson.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe also offered to show her a different singing bird automaton, made by a traditional clockmaking shop in Germany, that she could have taken home with her that day. It costs about $2,000. She did not stick around long enough to see it. We\u2019ve reached out to Kelly directly to try and clear the air. We really do wish her the best and hope that someday we can all laugh about this misunderstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe issue began on Saturday, when Clarkson posted: \u201cJust 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 and literally was looked at as if I couldn\u2019t afford it and was told he could find something comparable for me. Wow, dude. You\u2019re an idiot and just lost a huge sale. But y\u2019all should go check out Art of Play in Brooklyn if you enjoy being treated like Julia Roberts character in Pretty Woman. For sure, check it out \ud83d\udc4e\u201d<\/p>\n

According to its website, Brooklyn-based Art of Play sells home goods, puzzles, games, toys and books and also features a 26-seat theater that hosts performances by magicians. On Sunday, Art of Play responded on its social media, denying Clarkson\u2019s version of events.<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday, Kelly Clarkson visited us in Brooklyn and inquired about buying \u2018Molly,\u2019 a one-of-a-kind singing and dancing bird automaton who plays an important role in the magic shows we host here,\u201d the post reads. \u201cMolly is permanently attached to the wall and isn\u2019t for sale. However, the negative experience Kelly described on twitter would resonate with anyone who has ever felt judged in a shop.
\u201cAt Art of Play whether someone comes in to make a purchase or simply look around for a while, they are equally welcome. We greet everyone who walks in the door with the invitation to \u2018pick things up and play.\u2019 And they do, many stay for hours enjoying our puzzles, games and toys.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine our surprise when our small local business was suddenly attacked by 8 million people who have never visited our store. It\u2019s been a surreal experience to be the focus of such widespread outrage after just one mention by a celebrity.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThanks to all our friends for their support and welcome to all the curious folks who have discovered us amidst the drama. We\u2019re going to keep our heads down and hopefully, we can clear things up with Kelly someday. As a talented popular singer once said \u2018what doesn\u2019t kill you makes you stronger.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

That last line, of course, is a lyric from the chorus of Clarkson\u2019s 2011 hit song \u201cStronger (What Doesn\u2019t Kill You).\u201d<\/p>\n

Clarkson, however, followed up on Sunday with her own response in which she accused Art of Play of not sharing an accurate version of what went down.<\/p>\n

\u201cCool, cool. Sure, it wasn\u2019t for sale,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThat\u2019s the narrative Art of Play is gonna go with \ud83d\udc4d so the whole conversation we had when I asked you if it was for sale whilst pointing to the price tag hanging on the wall with the title Singing Bird didn\u2019t happen as you elevator eyed me saying in a condescending tone \u2018yes, it\u2019s for sale but it costs 15,000 dollars so if you\u2019d like me to find something comparable for you I can.\u2019 That all never happened and now it\u2019s not for sale. Okay, cool. So you\u2019re not only rude, you\u2019re also a liar. Got it \u2705<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnd by the way, I obviously support small businesses because I was literally at a small business trying to purchase things. I love small businesses and know they are important and I always support them, but you don\u2019t get a free pass to treat people less than in your store just because you are a small business. It\u2019s not that hard to be kind. I never blast people but you my friend were an exception. Your store is really cool. Unfortunately, you aren\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn her response, Clarkson reposted an image that had been taken showing a $15,000 price tag next to the item in question that someone had captioned: \u201cMolly\u2019s not for sale yet has a $15,000 price tag. Kelly Clarkson you will always be a real one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York store that Kelly Clarkson accused of giving her the Pretty Woman treatment has responded again…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[32346,9,11,10],"class_list":["post-371072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-kelly-clarkson","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}