A Brooklyn novelty store made it clear Sunday that Molly, the singing and dancing mechanical bird that serves as its unofficial mascot following an incident with Kelly Clarkson, will no longer be for sale.
But on Tuesday, the store changed its tune. Molly can now be purchased for $15 million.
Adam Rubin, one of the store’s co-owners, spoke to reporters Tuesday outside the Atlantic Avenue store and confirmed the hefty price tag.
Rubin declined to comment Wednesday. Clarkson did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Social media’s latest celebrity, Molly, entered the zeitgeist over the weekend after Clarkson shared on social media what she described as a disgusting experience at a Brooklyn store just minutes after her visit.
In a lengthy essay, she claimed that she “drove all the way to Brooklyn” to see The Art of Play, only to be shooed away when she inquired about purchasing Molly, as if she couldn’t afford the bird.
“But if you like being treated like Julia Roberts’ character in ‘Pretty Woman,’ then you should go see Art of Play in Brooklyn,” Clarkson said.
However, according to Art of Play, this is not the case.
The store said in its own social media post on Sunday that Clarkson asked about purchasing Molly, but that was not an option because the automated bird was permanently affixed to the wall. The store said it told Clarkson that Molly was not for sale.
“Of course, it’s not for sale. That’s the narrative The Art of Games is about,” Clarkson countered in another post on Sunday. She said she asked Molly if she was for sale, pointing to a nearby tag that appeared to list the price of the automaton. She said she was told Molly’s price was $15,000 and that the store could find her a similar product for less.
A photo of the alleged price tag circulated online, and Clarkson included it in her second post.
Art of Play followed up with a second post on Monday, “clarifying some additional details about Kelly Clarkson’s visit.”
The store said Clarkson was only in the store for five minutes, and after she asked about Molly, an employee explained that while the bird was not for sale, “a nearly identical automaton was owned by the machine’s creator, a talented artist living in Seattle named Bliss Kolb.” Kolb has not responded to multiple requests for comment from NBC News.
“He told us he was willing to part with Molly’s twins for $15,000,” the store employee continued. “We explained it all to Kelly Clarkson.”
The store said it also offered to show her a $2,000 bird that she could take home that day, but she “did not stay long enough to look at it.”
Since then, “game art” has received widespread attention. Reporter Pablo Torre retrieved surveillance footage of Clarkson inside the store. Another creator, who calls himself “Wake Truth,” accused the store of racism.
All of which led store owner Rubin to summon reporters Tuesday morning to set the record straight.
“Kelly Clarkson puts us in danger”
Rubin called the incident a “crazy misunderstanding” and “asymmetrical social warfare,” according to a condensed transcript of the impromptu press conference posted by Curbed. He also accused Clarkson of “swearing at our shopkeepers on the way out.”
When asked if the store owner told Clarkson that Molly wasn’t for sale, Rubin bet twice.
“Had this tweet storm not occurred, we would not have been aware of the negative interaction at the store; it would have been mundane,” he said, according to the transcript. “We treated her like a normal human being, but obviously it fell short of her expectations.”
Rubin explained that it took artist Kolb several years to create these unique birds, and it wasn’t easy to acquire one.
“This is not something sitting in a warehouse. It’s like a sculpture. It’s a beautiful piece of art,” he said.
But Rubin said he was willing to sell the bird for $15 million because of the attention Molly received.
Despite Molly’s five minutes of fame, Art of Play says it has been dealing with “trolls”. Rubin said the media had set up camp outside and friends and neighbors of the store were being “attacked” and “doxed.”
“Kelly Clarkson puts us in danger,” Rubin said, adding that people are “being threatened in the streets.” The store has turned off its phones due to increased call volume, but comments continue to pop up on its social media pages. Real customers cannot be contacted.
“I want to make this very clear,” Rubin said Tuesday. “Anyone who hasn’t been to the store in person is going to side with Kelly Clarkson.”
Clarkson is a coach on NBC’s “The Voice” and the former host of “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” which aired on the network. NBC is a division of NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News and NBC Local Television.
Lauren Wilson contributed.