Watch: Paul Rudd Doesn’t Want to Be Clueless: He Checks Out Art of Play Store After Kelly Clarkson Feud
Since Kelly Clarkson’s been gone, Paul Rudd is checking in on Art of Play.
The Marvel star made a pitstop at the Brooklyn novelty and magic shop days after the “Since U Been Gone” singer called out the store for being rude to her during an Oct. 10 visit.
Rudd—clad in a black hoodie and grey trousers—was seen peekinginto the curiosity shop on Oct. 21, appearing to check out the store’s display to possibly assemble his own thoughts on Clarkson’s feud with the New York shop.
The Grammy winner had put the store on blast in an Oct. 10 post on X, saying she’d gone in there to check out Art of Play’s mechanical singing bird named Molly, which she said was priced at $15,000.
“Just drove all the way to Brooklyn to check out this store I thought looked really rad and had a few things in mind to buy and literally was looked at as if I couldn’t afford it and was told he could find something comparable for me,” she shared. “Wow, dude. You’re an idiot and just lost a huge sale.”
Still, that didn’t stop the 44-year-old—mom to daughter River, 12, and son Remington, 10—from naming the store, suggesting that her fans “should go check out Art of Play in Brooklyn if you enjoy being treated like Julia Roberts character in Pretty Woman.”
In video footage of the interaction—obtained and reviewed by journalist and podcaster Pablo Torre on Oct. 13—fans could see what was going on behind Clarkson’s hazel eyes as she entered the store and picked up a few items before asking an employee about Molly.
Fernando Ramales / BACKGRID
And it certainly seemed to Clarkson that the employees had made a big mistake—huge!—because after the quick conversation, the former talk show host returned the items to their shelves and spoke to an employee one more time before walking out.
Following the incident, Art of Play released several statements, with one of the shop’s co-owners AdamRubin saying they were not expecting a moment like this.
“If this tweetstorm had not happened, we wouldn’t have realized there was a negative interaction in the shop; it was that undramatic,” he told New York magazine in an interview published Oct. 13. “We treated her like a normal person, but apparently that didn’t live up to her expectations.”
Lester Cohen/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
“Kelly Clarkson has put us in danger,” he continued. “People are getting threatened on the street, and the worst part is we didn’t know this was going to happen but Kelly Clarkson did.”
As for Molly, the singing bird that Clarkson expressed interest in? Rubin explained that Art of Play works “directly with artisans,” and that Molly herself wasn’t for sale, despite having a $15,000 price listed. However, if someone showed serious interest, they would reach out to her creator Bliss Kolb about having that person purchase one of the automatons.
Still, that didn’t stop Art of Play from raising the price of the mechanical birds, noting, “We’ve raised the price due to popular demand. It now costs $15 million.”
For a deep dive into more epic celebrity feuds, keep reading.
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