The saga between Kelly Clarkson and New York City specialty store Art of Play has taken another turn, as a prominent journalist obtained security footage from inside the Brooklyn location.
Pulitzer Prize and Edward R. Murrow award-winning podcaster Pablo Torre streamed the internal video, which appeared to show Clarkson inside Art of Play, during an episode of his show, "Pablo Torre Finds Out." The host didn't reveal how he obtained the footage.
The back-and-forth between the platinum-selling singer and small business began on Oct. 10, when Clarkson, 44, took to social media to accuse the store of treating her as if she couldn't afford a $15,000 mechanical singing bird named Molly. She compared her visit that day to the famous scene from "Pretty
Woman," in which Julia Roberts' character is turned away from a high-end boutique.
Art of Play responded with a series of statements that pushed back on Clarkson's claims, first by saying that the yellow wooden bird was not for sale and calling what happened a misunderstanding. In response, Clarkson called the shop owner "rude" and a "liar."
The shop's co-owner, Adam Rubin, 43, told USA TODAY that the store has been overwhelmed since the incident. Clarkson has a massive and passionate online fanbase, with 8.8 million followers on X alone, where her initial post has garnered over 45 million views. Rubin claims the store's phone and emails have been flooded with threatening messages, and their neighbors have been doxxed.
During his 46-minute podcast, which premiered on YouTube Tue. Oct. 13, Torre repeated those claims. He, along with co-hosts Wyatt Cenac and Amin Elhassan, watched the security camera "scene-by-scene." According to Torre, the video he received had no audio.
Clarkson, who walked into the store with another person, was dressed casually in a baseball cap, yellow t-shirt and joggers with a backpack around her shoulders. In the clip, she appears in the store for two minutes before standing in front of the device in question: the mechanical bird named Molly. Clarkson speaks with a store associate and gestures towards the bird. The associate points to an area below the bird where two tags were positioned; one said "Do Not Touch," and the other had a description and a price.
Art of Play has since clarified that the price was not for Molly, but rather for an identical mechanical bird that is located in Seattle, where the artist who created both lives. On his podcast, Torre played video that he said he filmed in 2025 which showed Molly in action during a magic show that the shop held. Owners of the store transform Art of Play at night into 69 Atlantic (a nod to the address), an intimate theater where secret magic shows take place.
After Clarkson and the store associate exchange words, Clarkson moves to the back corner of the shop while the associate appears to look in her direction and point towards another item. At this moment, however, Clarkson's back is turned to the associate, and she does not catch his gesture. He then begins talking to another person inside the store.
As for Clarkson, she walks back towards the bird, puts what appears to be a kaleidoscope back on the shelf and then makes her way towards the exit. Before exiting, Clarkson turns and says something to the person behind the cash register. She appears animated.
According to the timestamps on the footage, Clarkson was in the store for 4 minutes and 50 seconds. She walked out at 2:54 p.m. Her initial post to X about the incident went live at 3:09 p.m.
Torre ended his podcast by revealing what the store associate tried to sell Clarkson: a smaller set of mechanical birds in a glass cloche with a $2,000 price tag. Torre obtained the item and will auction it off to benefit The Kyra Fund, named for former "Watch What Happens Live" producer Kyra Sampson. The producer died in June 2026 from an aggressive form of brain cancer at age 28. Sampson's father, David, is a frequent contributor to "Pablo Torre Finds Out."
Contributing: Christopher Cann, Taijuan Moorman, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: New footage shows Kelly Clarkson inside Brooklyn store Art of Play
