Clarkson’s $15,000 Bird Dispute Goes Viral

Kelly Clarkson says staff at Brooklyn shop Art of Play made her feel she could not afford a $15,000 singing-bird automaton called Molly and offered her an alternative; she compared the encounter to the shop scene in *Pretty Woman*. The store says Molly is a display piece, permanently mounted and not for sale, and that the price tag referred to commissioning a similar automaton from its maker. The dispute went viral, prompting the shop to release silent security footage and report threats and online harassment directed at employees. The controversy has drawn competing takes, with some defending the store’s sales approach and others saying Clarkson deserved a clearer explanation; Duolingo’s owl mascot also joined in with a joking offer to be her bird companion. In a further twist, reports say the shop’s co-owner later listed Molly for $15 million, though the parties’ accounts of the original interaction remain at odds.