Newly released security footage captures Kelly Clarkson inside Brooklyn’s Art of Play store during the encounter that later ignited a fierce online dispute.
The 44-year-old singer enters the curiosity shop in video obtained by journalist Pablo Torre and asks about Molly, a $15,000 mechanical bird at the heart of the controversy. The store maintains that the elaborate automaton was never available for purchase.
The silent footage shows Clarkson wearing a gray baseball cap, yellow T-shirt, loose blue jeans and a backpack as she looks through items throughout the shop.
The American Idol winner spends just four minutes and 50 seconds inside. She eventually walks over to the mechanical bird and appears to speak with a store employee she later referred to as an “idiot” in an online post.
The employee appears to gesture toward something before he and Clarkson move away in opposite directions. Moments later, he seems to indicate another item while glancing back at her, though Clarkson is facing away.
Clarkson then places an item she had apparently been considering back on the shelf. As she heads toward the exit, she appears to complain about the employee to a busy cashier, gesturing with both arms before leaving the store.
Near the end of the clip, Clarkson appears to voice her frustration about a store employee to a busy cashier, gesticulating before walking out.
Freshly surfaced security video shows Kelly Clarkson, 44, visiting Art of Play in Brooklyn and captures the interaction that later spiraled into a bitter online feud.
Rushing to Control Fallout
Torre pointed out that Clarkson’s outfit closely resembled those worn by other shoppers, challenging her earlier suggestion that she had been treated differently because of her appearance.
Adam Rubin, the Brooklyn store owner involved in the dispute, said the singer delivered a final outburst before leaving. According to Rubin, Clarkson shouted at staff, vowed never to come back and later took her complaint to social media.
Rubin, 43, told Our News Outlet on Tuesday that he was meant to be recovering from skin-cancer removal surgery. Instead, he rushed to his Art of Play shop to manage the fallout from the singer’s weekend social-media tirade.
The dispute began Saturday, when Clarkson used social media to publicly criticize the art and magic store.
She claimed employees assumed she “couldn’t afford” Molly, the mechanical bird displayed prominently behind the cashier.
In an interview with Our News Outlet, Rubin offered his account of the confrontation and provided additional details about the escalating exchange.
He also criticized Clarkson for drawing widespread attention to his business—and for making the store a target of backlash from her fans.
The video obtained by Pablo Torre shows Clarkson pausing at the Brooklyn curiosity shop and asking about Molly, a mechanical bird valued at $15,000.
We Are Afraid for Our Shopkeepers
“None of us are supposed to be here today, especially me. I had cancer removed from my face last week, and I’m having the stitches taken out tonight,” Rubin said.
“But we are afraid for the safety of our shopkeepers.”
Clarkson lashed out on X on Saturday after a staff member at the curiosity shop declined to sell Molly, the mechanical bird displayed on one of the store’s walls.
She compared the experience to the treatment of Vivian Ward, the fictional sex worker played by Julia Roberts in the 1990 romantic comedy Pretty Woman. In the film, Ward is ejected from a Beverly Hills designer store because of her revealing clothing.
Clarkson wrote: ‘Just 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’t afford it and was told he could find something comparable for me.
‘Wow, dude. You’re an idiot and just lost a huge sale. But y’all should go check out Art of Play in Brooklyn if you enjoy being treated like Julia Roberts’ character in Pretty Woman.’
A $15,000 price tag has long sat beside Molly on the wall of the store.
Supporters of Clarkson said seeing such a tag on an item she was then told she could not buy may have been the source of the star’s anger.
Art of Play previously said that price tag was for an identical ornament that is not on display.
On Tuesday, Rubin continued to maintain that Molly was not for sale, despite the price tag, which has been updated in the wake of the scandal to call the mechanical creature ‘the world’s most famous singing bird automata!’
Businessman Adam Rubin, whose Brooklyn curiosity shop Art of Play was condemned by Clarkson after staff refused to sell her a $15,000 ornamental bird called Molly on Saturday (Molly is seen on the wall behind Rubin).
Trolled and Review-Bombed
Art of Play previously insisted they’d have been happy to direct Clarkson to Molly’s Seattle-based creator Bliss Kolb if she wished to commission a similar ornament.
Rubin told Our News Outlet on Tuesday that he blames Clarkson for the chaos that has engulfed his business since and said the talk show host knew exactly what she was doing when she put him ‘on blast.’
‘Kelly Clarkson has put us in danger,’ Rubin said. ‘We have gotten threatening phone calls, threatening text messages.
‘We’ve been review-bombed. We’re getting harassed on social media.
‘People are showing up and screaming outside of the shop. Our neighbors are getting doxed.
‘Somebody posted something in support of us online and they’re getting attacked by trolls.
‘We had no idea this could happen, but here’s the thing: Kelly Clarkson did, and she chose to do it anyway.’
Rubin suggested Clarkson’s behavior smacked of entitlement and that she had turned an ‘enormous misunderstanding’ into a ‘reprehensible abuse of power’ with her social media flameout.
‘When you have the platform, fame, money, and power that she has, you can’t just try to squash somebody like a bug and expect everybody to give you a pass,’ Rubin added.
Weaponizing Her Platform
The store owner, who also writes children’s books, went on to accuse Clarkson of showing a flash of diva-like behavior as she exited his store at the weekend.
He said she ‘yelled at the shopkeeper on her way out the door.’
‘As she was leaving, she said, “You know, I’m never coming here again.”,’ he went on.
Locals have rushed to back Rubin in the wake of the storm, with multiple Brooklyn-ites telling Our News Outlet on Monday that they stood firmly behind him and his business.
One said, who asked not to be named, said: ‘I mean, it actually could not have happened to nicer people. I’ve been coming here for years. I’m friends with the owners.
‘The whole thing is ridiculous, and for a celebrity to weaponize her platform of 8 million people on Instagram, 8 million on Twitter, to a tiny, little, independently owned store, owned and run by magicians.’
Rubin said his staff are ‘rattled,’ but also bemused that Molly has become the unexpected star of Clarkson’s online meltdown.
The bird is usually the centerpiece of magic theatre shows laid on by the store.
He joked that Molly’s value has increased one-thousand-fold in the wake of Clarkson’s meltdown.
An irate Clarkson responded to Art of Play, insisting that she was right to be annoyed and maintaining that she is a staunch supporter of small businesses.
Kelly Clarkson Would Know
‘She is currently, and probably for the rest of time, the most famous automaton in the world.’
‘I think what we would do is…maybe if somebody buys her for $15 million, we’ll give $15,000 to all the shopkeepers.’
‘Give Bliss a million dollars. Build a little case. Buy some old antique automaton.’
‘You can do a lot of you can do a lot with $15m.’
‘Kelly Clarkson would know.’
Clarkson shot to stardom after winning the first season of American Idol in 2002.
She enjoyed a successful singing career, with hits including Miss Independent and Since U Been Gone.
She launched a successful talk show on NBC in 2019, with The Kelly Clarkson Show ending in August 2026, so she could spend more time with her family.
Clarkson was married to talent manager Brandon Blackstock between 2013 and 2022.
Blackstock, who was the father of Clarkson’s children, died of skin cancer aged just 48 in August 2025.
The Daily Mail has contacted Clarkson’s representatives for comment.
