State of Play
A visit to the Brooklyn store at the center of a celebrity spat, where patrons and staff are trying to get back to business as usual
Three days after Kelly Clarkson started a public feud with the Brooklyn game shop Art of Play, the story is still ricocheting around the internet, with supporters on both sides weighing in on social media. But inside the tiny shop at the western end of Atlantic Avenue, just steps from an on-ramp for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, things are placid and drama-free.
As the door swings closed on a sunny Tuesday afternoon, muffling the sounds of traffic, the nook of curiosities comes alive. The theme pretty much boils down to: stuff that makes people stop and go, “Oooohhh!”
Three small tables in the center of the store hold artisanal puzzles, toys, and magic-themed games, from a bowl of colored spinning tops that start at $30 to a $265 kinetic sculpture built out of chrome-finished sticks. Floor-to-ceiling shelves are stacked with fine hardcover books, wooden xylophones, ticking clocks, and high-tech speakers.
In fact, you have to really look to find the star of the moment, a six-inch-tall hand-carved animatronic bird affixed to the wall and attached to a box and crank with a delicate “do not touch” tag. A manager makes an introduction: “There’s the world-famous Molly over there.”
It was for want of Molly that Clarkson first called out Art of Play online, claiming she was treated poorly after she inquired about purchasing the novelty artwork, which at the time boasted a $15,000 price tag. Clarkson alleged on X that an employee tried to direct her to a less expensive item, and likened her experience to the famed Pretty Woman scene where Julia Roberts’ sex worker Vivian is turned away from a Rodeo Drive boutique by snooty saleswomen. When the store responded that the bird wasn’t for sale, Clarkson doubled down, and her nearly 9 million followers jumped into the fray.
Co-owner Adam Rubin tells Rolling Stone the online attention has led to threatening messages over the phone, abusive DMs, review-bombs, intrusive influencers filming in the store, and vitriol hurled at store employees and passers-by — including one incident where the police had to be called. (The spat has also led to no shortage of media coverage, including a crush of reporters who had been awaiting Rubin as he arrived to open the shop earlier this same morning.) “Kelly Clarkson knew that she was lighting that fuse when she decided to use her fame and wealth on a public platform to try to destroy our business,” he says. “She chose to do it anyway.”
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But for now, the store is quiet. A family sits at a small table in the back of the shop doing crafts, while two separate women scour the shelves for birthday gifts. I ask one of the shoppers, who declined to give her name, about the Clarkson feud. “Who?” she replies. “What happened?”
Rubin says community members and small business owners who work near the shop have been supportive in the wake of the furor. Many, he says, have dropped off gifts, pastries, and notes of encouragement since Clarkson’s posts.
And while Rubin told reporters he’s upped Molly’s price (sarcastically, we presume) to $15 million due to “popular demand,” he otherwise seems eager to take the temperature on the feud down. He says he’s focused on translating the outsized attention Clarkson has given Art of Play into more support for its initiatives (the store also operates as a nighttime performance space for magicians) and for the other small businesses that surround it.
“This is a place designed for wonder,” says Rubin, who’s also the author of the popular children’s book Dragons Love Tacos. “We work directly with artisans all around the world. People come in in a bad mood and leave in a better mood.” When I ask if he and the owners would ever have Clarkson — who famously left in a bad mood — back, he’s quick to respond: “Absolutely.”
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As I turn to leave, a woman in an olive dress and grey streaked crop of curls steps past me at the door, arms open wide and a sympathetic look on her face.
“I know!” Rubin exclaims as he goes to hug her. “Can you believe this shit?”