Kelly Clarkson calls Brooklyn store owner a 'liar'

Kelly Clarkson called the owner of a Brooklyn shop a liar in a public post, TMZ reports, the newest turn in a fight over a $15,000 singing bird sculpture.

**Reported** by TMZ: Clarkson said on social media that Art of Play's owner first told her the piece was for sale for $15,000, and then offered to find her something similar instead.

"That all never happened and now it's not for sale. Okay, cool," she wrote, per TMZ. She called the owner rude and condescending, then went further.

"So you're not only rude, you're also a liar."

Art of Play tells a different story, per TMZ. The store disputes her version of the visit and says the automaton, which it calls Molly, is mounted on the wall and used in magic shows. It was never for sale, the store says.

That is the same position the shop took the first time around, when Clarkson described the trip as a letdown.

**Reported** by TMZ: she said she went to the shop planning to buy more than one item, and felt an employee steered her toward a cheaper option rather than taking her seriously. She compared the moment to Julia Roberts' character in Pretty Woman and knocked the store's hospitality.

Her second post pushed back at the idea that she doesn't back small businesses. She said she was shopping at one when it happened.

"You don't get a free pass to treat people less than in your store just because you are a small business," she wrote, per TMZ.

She closed with a line about the shop itself: "Your store is really cool. Unfortunately, you aren't."

The accounts, side by side:

• Clarkson, per TMZ: the bird was offered to her at $15,000, then pulled from sale.
• Art of Play, per TMZ: Molly hangs on the wall, appears in magic shows, and was never merchandise.

Both sides have now said their piece in public and through the same outlet. Nothing in TMZ's reporting attaches an outside record to either version, so whether the sculpture carried a price at all rests on two accounts and one number.

**The PR Read:** Clarkson answered in her own voice, no representative in the thread. A move like that usually signals a dispute that plays out on screens and posts rather than through statements handed to press. The shop has already answered once, and its answer hasn't moved. The singer's post ends on a compliment with a knife in it, which is the standard way to keep a fight going without saying anything a lawyer would flag.

• Art of Play
• Brooklyn
• Kelly Clarkson
• Molly the automaton
• The Voice