By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2026-10-13 20:47:05 | Updated at 2026-10-16 13:36:38
2 days ago
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Kelly Clarkson’s rant at a Brooklyn toy shop over a $15,000 mechanical bird has sparked thousands of threats, the co-owner told The Post — as he said the Grammy winner was mad she got “treated like everybody else.”
Adam Rubin, of the Art of Play curiosity shop, said that what started as a misunderstanding between the American Idol star and an employee over a pricey product snowballed into a mess due to Clarkson and her fans’ “perverse distortion of reality.”
“Everybody that comes into the store is treated the same, like a normal person,” Rubin said. “That’s what pissed her off. She didn’t get special treatment,” he added. “She was treated like everybody else who comes in, whether they’re in sweatpants or they’re nine years old, or they’re a celebrity we don’t recognize.”
“I can tell you this, people way more famous than Kelly Clarkson have come in here and been treated just the same as everybody else, and they do not have a problem with it,” Rubin insisted.
The drama broke out over the weekend when Clarkson, 44, claimed an “idiot” employee belittled her and suggested she wouldn’t be able to afford a one-of-a-kind mechanical bird that was on display.
The store, however, said “Molly,” the robotic singing and dancing bird is “permanently attached to the wall” and not for sale.
She also did not make it clear that she wanted to go through the process of having one made for herself.
The situation devolved into 72 hours of chaos for the store as Clarkson and her fans demanded they apologize for the supposed insult, Rubin said.
“She threw a Molotov cocktail into our store, and while it’s on fire, they’re saying we owe her an apology? This is asymmetrical social warfare,” the co-owner fumed.
Rubin, who is adamant that no one in the store recognized the American Idol winner, claimed that along with threats against the store, Clarkson’s fans have slammed their friends, doxed neighbors and review-bombed businesses around the shop.
Rubin said he could empathize if Clarkson was having a bad day or took offense to how the conversation around Molly happened, but he could not forgive her actions for unleashing her followers on the store.
“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,” he added.
Rubin added that Molly, now “the most famous singing bird automaton in the world,” is priced at $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,” he said.
