NYC Shop Owner Details ‘Ludicrous’ Interaction With Kelly Clarkson
As the feud between his business and Kelly Clarkson seems to continue, Art of Play owner Adam Rubin details his interaction with the pop star last weekend.
Clarkson took to social media after she experienced a Pretty Woman moment with employees at the New York City shop.
“Just drove all the way to Brooklyn to check out this store I thought looked really rad and had a few things in mind to buy,” she wrote. “And literally was looked at as if I couldn’t afford it and was told he could find something comparable for me. Wow, dude.”
The “Because of You” hitmaker also stated, “You’re an idiot and just lost a huge sale. But y’all should go check out Art of Play in Brooklyn if you enjoy being treated like Julia Roberts’ character in Pretty Woman. For sure, check it out.”
Although the shop later said the item she wanted, a mechanical bird, wasn’t for sale, Clarkson quickly asked why it had a $15,000 price tag. She went on to accuse the owner of lying.
However, Rubin is ready to share his side. While speaking to Page Six, Rubin clapped back at Clarkson’s story about what happened during her visit.
“She did not take out her Black Card and try to buy the thing off the wall,” he explained. “She was not told no, she was not told to leave.”
Further speaking about Clarkson’s visit, which he said was “less than five minutes,” Rubin pointed out, “She asked about the bird. It’s on the wall, and attached permanently. It was explained to her that it’s a complicated situation to get these things made. They take years. There’s one guy that makes them, and if we have seriously interested buyers, then we talk to the artist and try to work something out.”
Rubin went on to describe the mechanical bird, which is named “Molly,” as like a “couch on the showroom floor” for the shop.
“You don’t expect to take it out the door with you when you leave, do you? But there’s a price tag on it,” he continued. “So then you have a conversation with the person that works at the store about how can I get something like that in my house?”
Rubin further pressed that Clarkson’s version of the incident didn’t align with his employee’s story.
“It’s just like [a] he-said-she-said thing, right?” he said. “So she’s going to say one thing, I’m going to say another thing. The point of it is, nothing happened in the shop that was so dramatic that it’s worth throwing a Molotov cocktail into a mom-and pop-business.”
Although he has “sympathy” for Clarkson, Rubin said he isn’t ready to forgive her for the remarks against his store.
“It’s so hard to forgive her actions after she walked out the door. She knew what was going to happen,” he declared. “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 then added that no one in the shop recognized Clarkson nor knew who she was. “We have celebrities coming all the time. We are not reading the gossip columns. We’re not watching TV. We don’t know who people are. What happens is somebody comes in, they shop, we treat them like we would treat everybody else.”
Rubin has since raised Molly’s price tag from $15,000 to $15 million.
