The Brooklyn shop owner embroiled in a bizarre feud with Kelly Clarkson is setting the record straight about the “ludicrous” encounter over a mechanical bird — disputing the pop star’s version of what transpired.
“She did not take out her Black Card and try to buy the thing off the wall. She was not told no, she was not told to leave,” Art of Play co-owner Adam Rubin exclusively told Page Six Tuesday.
The children’s book author recalled Clarkson entering the Brooklyn Heights establishment and interacting with a staffer for a visit that lasted less than five minutes.
“She asked about the bird. It’s on the wall, and attached permanently. It was explained to her that it’s a complicated situation to get these things made,” Rubin said, adding, “They take years. There’s one guy that makes them, and if we have seriously interested buyers, then we talk to the artist and try to work something out.”
Rubin explained the automaton, named “Molly,” that Clarkson was interested in purchasing is like a “couch on the showroom floor” in a furniture store.
“You don’t expect to take it out the door with you when you leave, do you? But there’s a price tag on it,” he said. “So then you have a conversation with the person that works at the store about how can I get something like that in my house?
“That conversation did not go the way that she wanted it to go, and she felt disrespected,” he said.
Rubin claimed that Clarkson’s version of events, which she shared with her millions of X followers, doesn’t align with his employee’s experience.
“It’s just like [a] he-said-she-said thing, right?” he said. “So she’s going to say one thing, I’m going to say another thing. The point of it is, nothing happened in the shop that was so dramatic that it’s worth throwing a Molotov cocktail into a mom-and pop-business.”
While Rubin admitted to having “sympathy” for the “American Idol” alum, he isn’t so quick to forgive her for calling out his store.
“It’s so hard to forgive her actions after she walked out the door,” he said. “She knew what was going to happen. She knew that the entire pressure of her millions and millions of fans around the world were going to come to the service of their queen and weaponize themselves and debase themselves on behalf of a millionaire they have never met.”
Rubin said that none of his employees thought twice about the interaction until Clarkson made her feelings known to staffers on her way out.
“Nobody else in the store would have perceived that anything negative had happened until she told off the shopkeeper as she walked out the door. And that was the only time that we realized somebody was unhappy,” he said. “And then, 15 minutes later, the entire weight of the internet came crashing down upon us, and we were caught completely unprepared. We started getting flooded with hateful phone calls and threats and text messages. They are doxing our neighbors. Like, this is crazy.”
Rubin called the entire situation “ludicrous” and “surreal.”
“When this thing first started, everybody wanted us to die. And as the truth has come to light, thinking people realize this is reprehensible abuse of power,” he said. “We have to reconsider the place we give celebrities in our society.
“And this is not how you can behave as a citizen in the world, like, if you are this famous and powerful and you try to squash someone like a bug, then we’re supposed to blame the trolls for all the damage that’s inflicted. She lit the fuse.”
Rubin admitted that his staffers did know that Clarkson was an A-lister when she came into the brick-and-mortar.
“Nobody recognized her. Nobody knew who she was. We have celebrities coming all the time. We are not reading the gossip columns. We’re not watching TV. We don’t know who people are,” Rubin said. “What happens is somebody comes in, they shop, we treat them like we would treat everybody else.”
He also claimed that people “way more famous” than Clarkson have shopped at his store and were treated the same as any other customer.
“They do not have a problem with it… So many celebrities have come in here, and many of them have posted publicly about how they love this place,” he said.
Rubin noted that the toy bird has now become somewhat of a celebrity too — so much so that her price tag has skyrocketed.
“In the past 72 hours, Molly, a singing bird automaton has become the most famous singing bird automaton in the world,” Rubin said. “And we have raised the price from $15,000 to $15 million. And if somebody walks into the shop with $15 million, they can take the thing off the wall and enjoy it in their home.”
Molly became the songbird heard around the world this weekend when Clarkson took to X with claimsthat Art of Play staffers treated her like Julia Roberts’ character in “Pretty Woman.”
The “From Justin to Kelly” star, 44, claimed an employee assumed she could not afford the toy bird, which was listed for $15,000, and offered to show her a different automaton that cost $2,000. Apparently offended by the suggestion, she turned the offer down.
In response, the store shared a statement telling fans that the bird was not for sale and that they offered her another option instead.
Clarkson accused the store of lying, writing on X, “That all never happened and now it’s not for sale. Okay, cool. So you’re not only rude, you’re also a liar. Got it.”
The shop claimed they had tried reaching out directly to Clarkson in the hopes of smoothing things over.
Clarkson, 44, subsequently accused the store of lying about the exchange, while the owners said they had tried reaching out to her in hopes of making amends.
A source exclusively told Page Six earlier this week that Clarkson “must’ve been livid” over the exchange to go through the effort of blasting the business online.
“You know something must have really bothered her because that’s just not who she is,” the source said. “She’s not someone who goes around making a big deal out of nothing. She’s just a really good, normal person who happens to be incredibly famous.”
In leaked security footage released on Tuesday, Clarkson was seen shopping in the store dressed in a yellow T-shirt and a baseball cap. While there is no audio, Clarkson is seen viewing the bird and talking to a staffer before exiting the store after just a few minutes.
Clarkson’s rep did not reply to Page Six’s request for comment.
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