Kelly Clarkson’s now-viral interaction with a Brooklyn store owner who she accused of being rude to her over the weekend was caught on camera, and it’s now out there for the world to see.
Journalist Pablo Torre obtained security footage of Art of Play in Brooklyn Heights and featured it on the Tuesday episode of his podcast, “Pablo Torre Finds Out.”
Torre noted that the “American Idol” winner was only in the store for four minutes and 50 seconds, and showed him inside the store wearing a yellow shirt, jeans, a baseball cap and a backpack.
During the footage, Clarkson is seen touring the store and playing with the telescope, before coming across “Molly”, the rare automaton bird at the center of the scandal.
There is no sound in the footage, but it can be seen that the shopkeeper is talking about the bird and the bird is pointing to the bird. When he later turns around to talk to another customer, their interaction is brief and it turns out to be the last time they speak to each other.
Clarkson then puts back the telescope he was looking at as he heads towards the store’s exit. Before leaving, however, she turns around and looks angry as she stands in the doorway talking to the man at the front counter.
The former talk show host gestures animatedly with her hands as other patrons turn to look at her. The man at the cash register gestures to Molly, but she eventually leaves too.
Clarkson is then shown outside the store quickly pulling out her phone.
Torre noted that Clarkson’s casual attire was very similar to that of other customers in the store, suggesting that she was not discriminated against because of her attire.
Torre also noted that she has been to Art of Play before, confirming that “Molly” is only one of two birds in the world and that the bird plays an integral role in the opening act of the store’s ongoing magic shows.
The feud escalated this weekend when Clarkson dragged Art of Play on social media and accused an employee of treating her like Julia Roberts’ character in the movie “Pretty Woman,” assuming she couldn’t afford the mechanical singing bird, which carries a $15,000 price tag. (The price tag currently says $15 million.)
Clarkson claimed the employee looked him up and down and then condescendingly offered to find him a cheaper alternative, prompting him to call her an “idiot” who had lost a “big sale”.
But the store responded by insisting that the bird was not actually for sale. They said they offered to show him a different vending machine worth $2,000, but he refused.
Clarkson, 44, later accused the store of lying about the exchange, while store owners said they tried to reach the store in hopes of making amends.
On Tuesday, Art of Play co-owner Adam Rubin spoke to Page Six and slammed the singer for her “heinous abuse of power” following her public complaints that allegedly unleashed a flood of online harassment against her small business.
“It’s a pop star, it’s a mechanical bird, it’s surreal. When this first started, everyone wanted us dead,” Rubin said, referring to the hundreds of threatening messages his employees have received since Clarkson dragged his stores on social media.
“And as the truth comes to light, I think people are realizing that this is a reprehensible abuse of power,” he continued. “We need to reconsider the place we give to celebrities in our society.”
Sources close to the singer previously told Page Six that Clarkson’s reaction to her experience was unbecoming behavior for the Grammy winner.
“He must be furious if he’s actually publicly calling out a store,” an insider told us exclusively. “You know something is really bothering him because he’s not that type of person.”
“Kelly is seriously one of the most down-to-earth people you will ever meet,” the source added. “He is generally unflappable and truly one of the nicest people ever.”