We Have New Security Camera Footage Of Kelly Clarkson’s Infamous Visit To That Brooklyn Store, And People Are Very Divided

A day later, Art of Play responded with an Instagram statement reflecting on all the backlash they’d faced as a result of Kelly’s MEGA viral post. “Yesterday, Kelly Clarkson visited us in Brooklyn and inquired about buying ‘Molly,’ a one-of-a-kind singing and dancing bird automaton who plays an important role in the magic shows we host here,” they wrote. “Molly is permanently attached to the wall and isn’t for sale. However, the negative experience Kelly described on twitter would resonate with anyone who has ever felt judged in a shop.”

“At Art of Play whether someone comes in to make a purchase or simply look around for a while, they are equally welcome. We greet everyone who walks in the door with the invitation to 'pick things up and play.' And they do, many stay for hours enjoying our puzzles, games and toys,” they continued, adding, “Imagine our surprise when our small local business was suddenly attacked by 8 million people who have never visited our store. It’s been a surreal experience to be the focus of such widespread outrage after just one mention by a celebrity.”

The store’s Instagram account went on to repost a load of stories about the drama, including one that accused Kelly of mobilizing "8 million angry fans" against them.

“And by the way, I obviously support small businesses because I was literally at a small business trying to purchase things. I love small businesses and know they are important and I always support them, but you don’t get a free pass to treat people less than in your store just because you are a small business. It’s not that hard to be kind. I never blast people but you my friend were an exception. Your store is really cool. Unfortunately, you aren’t,” she added.

Kelly’s response fueled the backlash against Art of Play, and before long, the store shared another post highlighting “one additional detail” about the American Idol alum’s visit. “During the 5 minutes she spent in the store, she inquired about our mechanical bird puppet named Molly. We explained that while Molly is permanently attached to the wall and serves as a de facto mascot for our shop, a nearly identical automaton is owned by the creator of the machines, a brilliant artist named Bliss Kolb who lives in Seattle. He told us he would be willing to part with Molly’s twin for $15,000. We explained all of this to Kelly Clarkson,” they claimed.

“We also offered to show her a different singing bird automaton, made by a traditional clockmaking shop in Germany, that she could have taken home with her that day. It costs about $2,000. She did not stick around long enough to see it,” they alleged. “We’ve reached out to Kelly directly to try and clear the air. We really do wish her the best and hope that someday we can all laugh about this misunderstanding.”

And now, footage of Kelly’s visit to Art of Play has been acquired and released by Pablo Torre, who hosts the investigative Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast.

In the footage, Kelly — who can be seen wearing a baseball hat, a yellow T-shirt, and a backpack — picks up a few items while browsing the store, before appearing to get the attention of an employee while standing in front of the automaton bird.

Kelly can then be seen talking to the salesperson, who appears very laid-back as he points to where the bird is displayed. It’s unclear exactly what is said, given that the video doesn’t include audio, but after her conversation with the sales associate, Kelly walks further into the store and picks up more items. After a few moments, she looks over at the associate — who is now talking to another customer — and it’s at this point that she puts the items she's picked up back down and goes to leave.

Before exiting, Kelly stands in the store’s doorway and appears to make some comments towards a different employee, while gesturing her hands animatedly. Additional footage later released shows her walking out of the store and immediately pulling out her phone. (Her initial tweet calling out Art of Play was posted just 15 minutes after she left.)

Given that the footage — which you can watch here — has no audio, internet users have all sorts of interpretations of Kelly’s visit to the store, which, for clarity, lasted less than five minutes.

“ok yeah the employee/boss being very stand offish based on his body and i get what she was saying cause how you work there and have a cup in hand, leaning on furniture, legs crossed?” one more tweet said.

But many others feel like the footage does Kelly no favors. “This seems like a pretty normal interaction,” one user suggested. “She probably missed what the guy said while he was pointing at something, maybe another bird, who knows. I’m sure she’s used to people waiting on her, so maybe the owner was short with her, but look at how busy the store is. She probably misunderstood what he meant when he said the bird’s not for sale but can find something more comparable, as in a similar bird by the same artist. Either way, she’s a public figure with 8 million Instagram followers who decided to put a small local business on blast over a 30-second interaction.”

“This seems like a misunderstanding that happened quickly and didn’t need to become an internet thing,” another post read, to which someone replied, “Definitely didn't require someone with tens of millions of followers to post a snarky comment trying to shame a retail worker for a fleeting conversation. I usually like Kelly, but this is icky.”

One more person theorized, “I feel like she was just having an off day and didn’t handle the ‘rejection’ as well as she might’ve on a different day. To immediately go home and tweet about it is definitely an option you take when you’re not having a great day and/or not in a good headspace. Also worth mentioning, that shop was hella busy and they really need to have eyeballs on everyone in the store to make sure things aren’t getting stolen. I think it was a misunderstanding that could’ve been handled better all around.”

Well then! Let us know what you think in the comments, and check out Pablo’s podcast for yourself here.

Some Reddit comments have been edited slightly for length or clarity.