Key Takeaways
- Kelly Clarkson accused Brooklyn shop Art of Play of giving her the Pretty Woman treatment and called an employee “rude” and a “liar” over a mechanical singing bird she believed was for sale.
- After security footage showed Clarkson abruptly returning items and leaving, Sunny Hostin said she appeared to throw “a bit of a tantrum,” while Raven-Symoné called her “petty” but defended her right to discuss the encounter.
- Art of Play says staff received threats and harassment after Clarkson’s posts, while a partly tongue-in-cheek Change.org petition now urges NBC to remove her from The Voice.
Kelly Clarkson’s Birdgate headache is getting worse. The View host Sunny Hostin says newly released security footage makes it appear the singer threw “a bit of a tantrum” inside Brooklyn’s Art of Play—and the criticism arrives as a Change.org petition urges NBC to remove Clarkson from The Voice.
The silent footage, released by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Pablo Torre, captures Clarkson’s entire four-minute-and-50-second visit to the Brooklyn curio shop. It shows the singer browsing, examining a kaleidoscope and speaking with an employee near Molly, the mechanical singing bird behind the controversy. Clarkson then appears to place several items back before leaving.
“It seems like she kind of had a bit of a tantrum because she starts putting things back kind of quickly,” Hostin said during The View. “She wasn’t in the store very long.”
Guest co-host Raven-Symoné had an even sharper description. “She was petty,” Raven said. Hostin quickly agreed: “She was a little petty.”
Still, Raven defended Clarkson’s right to speak publicly about an encounter she found insulting, arguing that viewers could not know what personal history shaped her reaction.
She noted that Clarkson grew up without much money and said an interaction involving wealth or a perceived judgment about what she could afford may have landed differently for the singer.
Hostin said the video changed her perspective “a little bit,” but her bigger issue was Clarkson directing millions of followers toward a small business. “When you have a huge platform, there comes a lot of responsibility with that,” Hostin said. “I just can’t imagine that she doesn’t know that there’s that social media mob hanging out on the internet.”
Hostin previously argued that the dispute should have been “handled privately,” especially after Art of Play said its employees received hateful messages, angry calls, and death threats.
Art of Play maintained that Molly was permanently attached to the wall and used during the shop’s magic performances. According to the business, the nearby $15,000 tag referred to a custom bird available through artist Bliss Kolb, and an employee offered to show Clarkson a $2,000 German-made alternative.
The fallout has now followed Clarkson back to NBC. A Change.org petition launched Oct. 15 calls for the network to remove her from The Voice’s live shows and block any future return, arguing that her conduct was incompatible with the show’s emphasis on “mentorship, professionalism, and respect.”
NBC has not yet commented on the Birdgate controversy.
