On Saturday, singer Kelly Clarkson published a scathing X post about her experience at Brooklyn store Art of Play, claiming that she was treated "like Julia Roberts' character in Pretty Woman" when she tried to buy a mechanical bird. The internet quickly took sides, with Clarkson and Art of Play both issuing multiple statements arguing about what actually happened.
Now security footage of the interaction has been made public, offering more fodder for people to scrutinise and argue about.
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Podcast Pablo Torres Finds Out shared the video in a YouTube livestream on Tuesday, showing Clarkson visiting Art of Play just before 3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 10. In the footage timestamped 2:49 p.m., a person Torres identified as Clarkson entered the store and began browsing items on display. She soon looked toward Molly, the mechanical bird at the centre of the controversy, and sought the attention of a store worker.
Though Art of Play's security video has no audio, it appears as though Clarkson and the worker were discussing Molly. The pair stood behind the bird as they spoke, Clarkson pointing and looking toward it while the worker performed an American lean with a drink in hand. Unfortunately, the footage is too blurry and obscured to clearly determine the full nature of the conversation.
The worker then walked away toward the other side of the store while Clarkson moved to the back of it, apparently done with the conversation. The worker did point at something on the wall he had moved to, looking toward Clarkson as he did so. However, Clarkson did not appear to see this gesture due to her back being turned. The Art of Play worker then began speaking to a different customer, and was engaged in this conversation when Clarkson turned back around.
Clarkson then returned the other items she'd picked up to the shelves and exited the store, but not before appearing to express her displeasure to another Art of Play worker. Though it's unclear exactly what she said, Clarkson's hand gestures suggest she was left frustrated and unhappy after her interaction with his colleague. Overall, Clarkson was in Art of Play for approximately five minutes, having promptly left after her negative experience.
While podcast host Torres did not state how he obtained the video, he and guest Wyatt Cenac disclosed that both were customers at Art of Play and had previously spoken "a bunch" with Adam Rubin, one of the store's co-owners. Torres even shared a clip he had filmed last year of Molly in action. However, he also claimed that Pablo Torres Finds Out is a "pro Kelly Clarkson podcast," citing a 2024 episode in which he praised her song covers.
The internet reacts to Kelly Clarkson security footage
The internet has swiftly pounced on the new security footage, attempting to analyse Clarkson and the worker's body language to determine what happened. Even so, the video doesn't appear to have changed many people's opinions, with its lack of audio and unclear images leaving much up to debate.
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Technically, a store is not legally obligated to sell a product merely because an associated price tag is on display. U.S. contract law states that a price tag is an invitation to negotiate, meaning that it is a seller telling customers they can offer to buy the item. If a customer does so, it is then up to the seller to decide whether to accept the offer.
The U.S. has anti-discrimination laws which prevent stores from denying service to potential customers based on factors such as their race, religion, sexual orientation, or gender. However, such laws do not cover discrimination based on socioeconomic status, which Clarkson's Pretty Woman comparison implied occurred.
Regardless of the strict legalities of the situation, general social convention dictates that items in a store with a price tag on them are for sale. As such, it seems reasonable that Clarkson believed Molly was for sale, and was put off when a worker attempted to direct her to alternatives. At the same time, Art of Play also appears within its rights to refuse her attempt to buy Molly. Whether or not the worker was rude when he refused Clarkson is another question, and one that seems unlikely to be definitively answered by this security footage.