A Brooklyn novelty shop made it clear Sunday that Molly, a singing and dancing mechanical bird that serves as its unofficial mascot, was not for sale after an incident with Kelly Clarkson.
But Tuesday, the store changed its tune. Molly can now be purchased — for $15 million.
Adam Rubin, one of the shop’s co-owners, held a gaggle with reporters Tuesday outside the Atlantic Avenue store and confirmed the hefty price tag.
Rubin did not respond to an NBC News request for comment Wednesday. Clarkson also did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Molly, social media’s latest celebrity, entered the zeitgeist over the weekend after Clarkson shared what she described as a distasteful experience at the Brooklyn store on social media just minutes after visiting it.
In a lengthy post, she claimed she “drove all the way to Brooklyn” to check out Art of Play, only to be shooed away when she inquired about purchasing Molly, as if she couldn’t afford the bird.
“But y’all should go check out Art of Play in Brooklyn if you enjoy being treated like Julia Roberts character in Pretty Woman,” Clarkson said.
According to Art of Play, however, that’s not what happened.
In its own social media post Sunday, the store said Clarkson asked about buying Molly, but that wasn’t an option since the automaton bird is permanently affixed to its wall. The store said it told Clarkson that Molly wasn’t for sale.
“Sure, it wasn’t for sale. That’s the narrative Art of Play is gonna go with,” Clarkson shot back with another post Sunday. She said that she asked whether Molly was for sale while pointing to a nearby tag that appeared to list a price for the automaton. She said she was told Molly would cost $15,000, and that the store could find something comparable for her at a lower price point.
A photo of the purported price tag circulated online, and Clarkson included it in her second post.
Art of Play then released a second post Monday to “clarify some additional details about Kelly Clarkson’s visit.”
The shop said Clarkson was in the store for only five minutes, and that after she asked about Molly, an employee explained that while that bird was not for sale, “a nearly identical automaton is owned by the creator of the machines, a brilliant artist named Bliss Kolb who lives in Seattle.” Kolb has not responded to multiple requests for comment sent by NBC News.
“He told us he would be willing to part with Molly’s twin for $15,000,” the store continued. “We explained all of this to Kelly Clarkson.”
The shop said it also offered to show her a bird priced at $2,000 that she could take home the same day, but that she “did not stick around long enough to see it.”
Art of Play has since received a lot of attention. Journalist Pablo Torre obtained surveillance video of Clarkson in the store. Another creator who goes by Sober Facts accused the store of racial profiling.
All of this led Rubin, the shop owner, to gather reporters Tuesday morning to set the record straight.
‘Kelly Clarkson has put us in danger’
According to a condensed transcription of the impromptu news conference published by Curbed, Rubin called the incident “an insane misunderstanding” and “asymmetrical social warfare.” He also accused Clarkson of “scolding our shopkeeper on the way out.”
When asked whether the shopkeeper told Clarkson that Molly wasn’t for sale, Rubin punted twice.
“If this tweetstorm had not happened, we wouldn’t have realized there was a negative interaction in the shop; it was that undramatic,” he said, according to the transcript. “We treated her like a normal person, but apparently that didn’t live up to her expectations.”
Rubin explained that the artist, Kolb, takes years to create these one-of-a-kind birds, and it’s not easy to simply obtain one.
“This is not something that’s sitting in a warehouse. It’s like a piece of sculpture. It’s a fine-art piece,” he said.
But since Molly has gained so much attention, Rubin said, he’s willing to part with the bird for $15 million.
Despite Molly’s five minutes of fame, Art of Play said it has been dealing with “trolls.” The media has been camped outside, and friends and neighbors of the shop are being “attacked” and “doxed,” Rubin said.
“Kelly Clarkson has put us in danger,” Rubin said, adding that people are being “threatened on the street.” The store has turned off its phone due to the uptick in calls, but comments keep flooding its social media pages. True customers can’t get in touch.
“I want to be very clear about this,” Rubin said Tuesday. “Nobody who has ever visited this store in person is taking Kelly Clarkson’s side.”
Clarkson is a coach on NBC’s “The Voice” and the former host of “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” which also aired on the network. NBC is a division of NBCUniversal, which is also the parent company of NBC News.