Art of Play Defends Itself After Kelly Clarkson's Social Media Storm Over £11,000 Bird

On a rainy Wednesday afternoon, a novelty toy and games shop in a quiet corner of New York City was drawing far busier foot traffic than usual. Inside, the store was packed with cameramen and customers, while passersby in the Brooklyn neighbourhood of Cobble Hill peered through the window, asking one another: where is the bird?

Art of Play has found itself at the centre of a social media storm since the weekend, when the Grammy-winning musician Kelly Clarkson complained online that the boutique would not let her buy a singing and dancing mechanical bird perched on its wall. The Since U Been Gone singer claimed she was looked at as if she could not afford the bird, which she said carried a price tag of $15,000, or about £11,000. Y'all should go check out Art of Play in Brooklyn if you enjoy being treated like Julia Roberts' character in Pretty Woman, she said, referring to the 1990 romantic comedy in which Roberts' character is snubbed by shop staff who imply she cannot afford their wares.

In a follow-up post, Clarkson said the store had told her the bird cost $15,000 and that they could find her something else comparable. Art of Play has defended how it treated the star, saying the wooden bird, named Molly, is permanently attached to the wall and is not for sale. It said that during Clarkson's five-minute visit on Saturday, an employee suggested she could buy an identical bird for $15,000. Staff also offered her a different singing bird for $2,000 from a clock-making shop in Germany, which she could have purchased that day. Imagine our surprise when our small local business was suddenly attacked by eight million people who have never visited our store, Art of Play said. It has been a surreal experience to be the focus of such widespread outrage after just one mention by a celebrity.

Clarkson defended her decision to criticise the store, saying: I never blast people but you my friend were an exception. When the BBC visited the store on Wednesday, there were more reporters than customers. A shopkeeper said they would not comment on the story any further and simply wanted to get back to business as usual. Molly still hung on the wall, this time beside a price tag of $15m. The sign jokes that the sculpture is the world's most famous singing bird automata.

The store's owner has said he and his staff have faced threats and harassment since Clarkson's complaint, telling the BBC's US partner CBS News that the singer had endangered them. This week, a man filmed himself yelling expletives outside the store before accusing its employees of racially profiling Clarkson. The kerfuffle lingered in headlines on Wednesday as a news outlet released surveillance video from Art of Play purporting to show Clarkson's visit. The grainy footage, which has no audio, is said to show her wearing a yellow shirt, a baseball cap and a backpack while browsing items, including Molly the bird. She can be seen talking with an employee, apparently about the bird as she points at it, and later moving to leave the store. She returns to say something animatedly to the cashier.

Yet while the argument over the bird has gone viral online, some of Art of Play's customers had not heard about it before being greeted by news cameras on the premises. One customer in town visiting his daughter said he was not familiar with the controversy. For others, Clarkson's claims that staff had treated her rudely came as a surprise. Kiran Ramineni, who lives next door, described Art of Play as a very nice small mom and pop store and said he had seen flocks of journalists there in recent days. Shopgoer Emily Trantanella, 27, said: I feel like a pretty woman and I've always been treated very well here. I really like it here.