Kelly Clarkson reportedly stopped by Brooklyn toy shop Art of Play for some retail therapy Saturday, but the outing quickly turned into a heated confrontation.

The singer accused the store of treating her like the character in Pretty Woman after staff allegedly refused to sell her a $15,000 mechanical bird. Clarkson, according to reports, then abandoned her usual America’s sweetheart image and took aim at the proprietor, calling him an “idiot” and saying, “You’re not only rude, you’re also a liar.”

The store described the episode as a misunderstanding. The dispute nevertheless escalated beyond social media, with police reportedly summoned after a disturbance prompted frightened employees to lock themselves inside.

A source told the Daily Mail that Clarkson—described as “genuinely one of the nicest people in Hollywood”—felt she had been treated unfairly. After years of what she believes has been disrespect, the insider said, the singer is not prepared to quietly move on.

“Other people would blow it off, not Kelly,” the insider said.

“She’s not just going to brush it off and pretend everything is fine. She believes in being honest, treating people fairly and calling things out when they’re wrong.”

Clarkson left Los Angeles for New York City three years ago, relocating with her daughter, River, 12, and son, Remington, 10.

A second insider who previously worked with the singer said the Brooklyn incident was not the first time Clarkson had felt slighted since making the move to New York.

“She has a really hard time with how New Yorkers are. She is getting sick of it. A lot of people in New York don’t recognize her and don’t treat her that nicely, probably because she usually has no makeup on and a big hat. They judge her and she knows it,” the insider claimed.

Another source offered a sharper comparison than Pretty Woman, likening Clarkson to Miranda Priestly, the demanding fashion editor played by Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada.

“People definitely whispered about her when she was here. It was like Miranda Priestly walking into Runway, except she would walk in without her glam and then have her helpers make her all dolled up so she was on-air ready… Of course, it was part of her hosting gig, but she took it to another level,” the source said.

The second insider offered a different explanation, suggesting Clarkson’s irritation may reflect the contrast between her Southern upbringing and New York’s famously blunt social culture.

“Kelly is used to super-friendly people from the South, people who are helpful and kind and say ‘have a nice day,’ but we all know New Yorkers are not like that. They can be nasty.”

The insider characterized Clarkson as a “no-BS person” who does not sugarcoat her opinions and “says it like it is.” That directness, the source added, can sometimes “ruffle feathers.”

And when Clarkson believes she has been wronged, the source said, she does not hold back.

“When Kelly gets offended, she goes into Beast Mode. She takes people head-on and can be tough as nails when she thinks she has been treated unfairly.”

For fans used to Clarkson’s warm, down-to-earth persona, the verbal fireworks might seem a little off-brand. But the source insists the straight talking is part of the package.

‘She’s real and people trust her because she doesn’t put on some fake Hollywood persona.’

And there are two particularly important people Kelly wants to see her standing her ground: her children.

‘She’s still the Kelly everyone knows and loves, but she’s not willing to take anyone’s crap anymore, especially now that she’s a mother,’ the first insider said. 

According to the first insider, standing her ground is about setting an example as much as settling a score.

‘She wants her kids to stand up for themselves, speak their minds, and be honest about how they feel. So, when Kelly feels disrespected, she’s going to say something about it.’ 

She shares both children with her late ex-husband, Brandon Blackstock, who died in 2025, aged 48 after a battle with melanoma. 

This time, though, her complaint came with an audience.

What began as a Saturday shopping trip became a very public spat when Clarkson took to X to accuse the shop of deciding she couldn’t afford what she wanted. 

‘Just drove all the way to Brooklyn to check out this store I thought looked really rad,’ she wrote, claiming she ‘literally was looked at as if I couldn’t afford it’ when she asked about buying the mechanical bird, and was offered something comparable instead. 

Then came the less-than-glowing customer feedback.

‘Wow, dude. You’re an idiot,’ she wrote. 

Art of Play explained that the bird, named Molly, was a ‘one-of-a-kind singing and dancing bird automaton’ used in the shop’s magic shows. 

According to the business, there was one rather important catch.

‘Molly is permanently attached to the wall and isn’t for sale.’

The shop insisted buyers and browsers alike were welcome, but said Clarkson’s complaint had made it anything but business as usual.

‘Imagine our surprise when our small local business was suddenly attacked by eight million people who have never visited our store,’ it said.

The backlash did not stay neatly confined to the comments section. The store was flooded with one-star Google reviews following Clarkson’s viral post, while police were called over reports of a disorderly person at the premises.

Staff were reportedly so concerned by the disturbance that they locked themselves inside.

Still, Art of Play appeared keen to call a ceasefire.

‘We’re going to keep our heads down and hopefully, we can clear things up with Kelly someday,’ it added – signing off with a pointed nod to her own hit: ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.’

Clarkson, however, was not ready for the singalong.

In a follow-up post, she challenged the claim that the bird was not for sale, saying she had pointed to a price tag marked ‘Singing Bird’ and been told it cost $15,000.

‘Cool, cool. Sure, it wasn’t for sale. That’s the narrative Art of Play is gonna go with,’ she wrote.

Clarkson then gave her account of the exchange, alleging that the employee had looked her up and down before telling her, in a ‘condescending tone’: ‘yes, it’s for sale but it costs 15,000 dollars so if you’d like me to find something comparable for you I can.’

Her verdict was blunt.

‘So you’re not only rude, you’re also a liar.’

And before anyone could accuse her of having a problem with small businesses in general, she addressed that, too.

‘I love small businesses and know they are important and I always support them, but you don’t get a free pass to treat people less than in your store just because you are a small business.’

She even found room for a compliment – although the employee might have preferred she hadn’t bothered.

‘Your store is really cool. Unfortunately, you aren’t,’ she concluded.

Some supporters on Reddit applauded her for calling out what she described as condescending service, arguing that the issue wasn’t celebrity status – it was basic manners.

One wrote: ‘The lesson Kelly Clarkson is conveying is not that she is special. She is saying treat everyone good because you never know who you are talking to.’

Another chimed in: ‘Thank you for calling them out, Kelly. The ‘equality’ people are hypocrites.’

But not everyone thought Clarkson had earned the last word, with many rallying behind the shopkeepers. 

For some critics, the issue was not whether Clarkson had encountered a rude employee. It was whether a star with millions of followers should name a small business and leave it to weather the consequences.

‘Kelly was absolutely out of pocket for making the post to begin with. It automatically sounded like she wanted to buy something that wasn’t for sale and she tried to play the whole, ‘do you know who I am?’ card and fair play to the store for taking the diplomatic position here,’ one critic posted.

Another wrote: ‘She looks really bad with the whole story out. Really, really bad.’

Others argued that even if her version of the encounter was entirely accurate, the public dressing-down was still disproportionate.

‘Even if Clarkson were 100 percent correct and an employee were rude to her, it wouldn’t be justification for using her platform to sic millions of fans on a small business. A normal person would go to the company directly with the complaint,’ one wrote.

But the criticism of Clarkson was not confined to strangers in the comments section. 

A source close to Clarkson, who has worked on her eponymous talk show, told the Daily Mail that, while they were inclined to believe she had encountered rude service, the public dressing-down was harder to square with the person they knew.

‘I’m inclined to believe that she was treated rude, because I’ve been with her when she’s gotten rude service and she usually laughs it off. Like if the barista is a jerk, she’s like ‘guess someone is having a bad day,” explained the source.

‘So this is kind of crazy to me. Definitely out of character for her. The Kelly I know wouldn’t use her social media as a weapon like this. So I’m confused.’

The insiders defending Clarkson, however, painted a very different picture.

‘Sure, that kind of attitude can make some people see her as an obnoxious diva who thinks she’s above everyone else. But honestly, that’s about as far from who Kelly is as you can get,’ said the first insider.

‘She’s someone who understands what it feels like to be on the receiving end of unfair treatment.’

The second source added: ‘She is not a diva at all, she is not stuck up, she is just pure Texas.’ 

In a further response late Sunday, Art of Play maintained that Clarkson’s visit had lasted five minutes and said it had offered her a ‘nearly identical’ bird available directly from the designer who made both. 

The business said it had also offered to show her a third option – but that ‘she did not stick around long enough to see it.’ 

The two sides, then, remain some distance from singing the same tune. But the first insider is not ruling out a change of heart. 

‘There could be a moment of clarity down the line where Kelly and the store decide to let bygones be bygones.’

For now, though, the source says Clarkson isn’t ready to put an apology on the counter. 

‘She wants to stand her ground and make it clear that she won’t be bullied into backing down or pressured into apologizing for continuing to speak out,’ the insider said.

The Daily Mail has contacted Clarkson’s rep for comment.  

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is declining to answer questions under oath about her handling of the deadly Palisades Fire, according to the attorney representing former Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley, whom Bass removed after the blaze.

Crowley’s attorney, Mia Munro, wants to question Bass about statements she allegedly made during a May mayoral debate. Those remarks are central to a defamation lawsuit Crowley filed against the mayor in June.

According to a source familiar with the case, Crowley’s legal team wants to establish what Bass knew, when she knew it and why she repeated the disputed claims during the debate.

Bass, through her attorney Ian Van Dusen, has declined to sit for a deposition. In a sworn statement, Munro said she was “advised that Bass would not agree to any discovery.”

In recent court filings, Munro said she was seeking “a limited deposition of Defendant Karen Bass, addressing the issue of Bass’ state of mind” when the mayor made the debate comments.

Bass’ office did not respond to a request for comment from The Post.

During the televised debate, which also featured candidates Nithya Raman and Spencer Pratt, Bass was asked about cuts to the LAFD’s operating budget and reports that some fire engines were out of service when the Palisades Fire erupted.

“The primary problem there was that the chief sent home a thousand firefighters,” Bass replied.

Bass added that “there were also fire trucks that were out of use because she had sent the firefighters home” and that firefighters were supposed to have been deployed or pre-deployed in the area, but “that did not happen.”

“Each statement is false, and Bass knew it,” Crowley’s complaint states. The lawsuit argues that official LAFD records available to Bass in her capacity as mayor contradicted the claims.

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Munro’s statement also says Bass has declined to acknowledge that the remarks she made during the debate were factual statements.

Crowley’s attorneys asked Bass to answer written discovery requests by admitting or denying that she made the statements. Van Dusen declined to have Bass respond and instead filed an anti-SLAPP motion.

“Bass has chosen not to sign a declaration attesting that the statements she made about (Crowley) at the Mayoral Debate were true, or that Bass believed that the statements were true,” Munro wrote.

Crowley’s legal team is also seeking clarity about who is covering Bass’ legal bills. “Is the City of Los Angeles? The lawsuit is based on Karen Bass, the candidate, not the official,” a person close to the case told The Post.

“Bass could not be sued individually if acting in the capacity of Mayor. She’s trying to use official immunity, but she made the comments on a campaign debate stage. Our tax dollars shouldn’t be paying for this,” the person added.

A judge is expected to rule on Crowley’s discovery motion November 2, one day before the election. The person familiar with the case characterized Bass’ refusal as politically motivated and said it was “very much rooted in her personal interest.”

Crowley filed the defamation lawsuit after a highly public dispute with Bass that began in the aftermath of the January 2025 Palisades Fire. The blaze destroyed nearly 7,000 structures and killed 12 people.

According to the lawsuit, Bass questioned Crowley’s decisions during the fire after the chief publicly criticized the mayor, who was in Ghana when the blaze began.

Bass dismissed Crowley as LAFD chief on February 21, 2025. Crowley was given a note stating: “Unfortunately, you have exercised management incompatible with what is required of leaders of City departments. One example is the decision to send 1,000 firefighters home instead of keeping them on duty the morning that the fires broke out,” according to the defamation complaint.

The lawsuit also alleges that Bass continued making false claims about Crowley, including that she refused to oversee an after-action report on the fire. It further accuses Bass of denying that the LAFD budget had been cut, blaming Crowley for failing to pre-deploy additional firefighters and faulting her for not personally calling Bass about the dangerous weather conditions.

Bass’ office was contacted for comment.

911 recordings indicate that a chain of miscommunications delayed the emergency response after the Tennessee Department of Correction’s failed execution of death row inmate Christa Pike.

The first call reached dispatchers at about 8:40 p.m. Sept. 30, nearly an hour after Pike’s scheduled execution had begun, according to documents and audio obtained by Fox News.

The unidentified caller reported that the execution had failed but could not provide the code dispatchers required to confirm the call was legitimate.

The recordings show operators then tried to verify whether the report was genuine before sending help.

“So we have a medical call for service at the Riverbend Prison,” one dispatcher says in audio obtained by Fox News.

The dispatcher told a colleague that the caller said, “They carried out the execution, the subject didn’t pass away, and they need an ambulance because she’s not breathing normally.”

“We are trying to find out if that is an actual thing that is happening, and we need to send an ambulance, and/or if you need police assistance, or if this is someone that is just basically prank calling or like swatting us,” the operator said.

In a separate portion of the dispatch audio, an operator can be heard canceling the emergency response.

At approximately 9:03 p.m., a dispatcher said supervisors at the Department of Emergency Communications had determined the report was false. “Per supervisors here at the DEC [Department of Emergency Communications], we have been informed it is a false call,” the dispatcher said. “There is no medical assistance needed at Riverbend Prison.”

A later exchange between a dispatcher and someone who appeared to work at Riverbend revealed that uncertainty remained.

“We got a call about a failed execution at your guys’ facility, and we’re just calling to verify,” the dispatcher said.

“Um … who called you?” the prison employee replied.

“Is there like a sergeant I could speak with, or a supervisor?” the dispatcher asked.

“Who called you? Do you know?” the employee asked.

“No, we don’t exactly know,” the dispatcher answered.

“I’m being told nobody from our facility called you, so there’s not really anything to speak of at the moment,” the employee said.

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Pike’s attorney, Kelly Gleason, also contacted 911 to report the botched execution, according to the recordings.

“What’s going on is my client, Christa Gail Pike, is undergoing a state execution. She has completed the stages of the protocol and last we knew from the attorney who is present, she is still alive and breathing and needs immediate life-saving care,” Gleason can be heard saying during a phone call timestamped at approximately 9:08 p.m.

Around the same time as Gleason’s call, Riverbend Prison’s Central Control told emergency responders that they “would have been the ones to call in” but that they “did not make that call,” according to the audio.

But also around that time, a first responder can be heard on a separate recording saying: “Somebody is outside the gate at the prison telling us that it’s real and demanding us to go in. They say they are some sort of state official. I need somebody to get out to the gate and talk to those people.”

At that point, Central Control cleared the way for first responders to enter the prison at 9:11 p.m.

Pike was in an ambulance and being transferred to a hospital by 9:34 p.m., the Associated Press reported.

Pike was convicted of first degree murder and conspiracy to commit first degree murder in 1996 for the 1995 torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. She was sentenced to death and had been on death row for over 30 years when she arrived at her scheduled execution by lethal injection on Sept. 30.

Prison execution authorities administered a single dose of pentobarbital, a central nervous system depressant used in Tennessee execution protocol. When Pike remained conscious after the initial dose, authorities administered a second dose per state protocol.

When the second dose did not kill Pike, Tennessee’s single-drug execution protocol prevented authorities from administering a third dose.

Pike was taken to a hospital where she was placed on a ventilator and remained unconscious for six days, waking up on Oct. 6, according to her attorneys.

Pike was taken back to the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center women’s prison on Oct. 10 where she is continuing to receive medical care, her attorneys said in a statement.

Following the failed execution, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has paused all state executions pending a further review.

News Media contacted the Tennessee Department of Correction and Pike’s attorneys for comment.

A Florida woman allegedly killed two kittens and buried three others alive in her backyard after becoming convinced the animals were possessed by demons, authorities said.

Alba Luz Chavez, 37, killed two kittens on October 5, placed their bodies in plastic bags and buried them, according to police. Deputies said she had reportedly been experiencing a serious mental health episode for much of the week.

Three children in Chavez’s care tried to protect three other kittens by locking them inside a room at their mobile home in Hobe Sound, a community about 35 miles north of Palm Beach.

The children left for dinner with family on Thursday, leaving the kittens secured inside while Chavez remained at the residence. When they returned, they discovered that Chavez had forced her way into the room and that the kittens were gone.

The children contacted police. When deputies arrived, Chavez allegedly told them she believed all five kittens had demons and that they were ugly, Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said at a Friday news conference.

Chavez also told deputies that she did not want black or brown cats in her home and admitted killing two kittens on October 5, Budensiek said.

She reportedly told officers they would need gloves, shovels and bags to find the remaining kittens before leading them to the area where she had buried the animals, according to the sheriff.

Body camera footage shows deputies digging in the yard and pulling two live kittens from plastic bags buried in the dirt as the animals meowed.

Deputies could not find the third kitten, despite excavating the backyard and searching the mobile home. The animal remains missing, Budensiek said.

The bodies of the two dead kittens were discovered in shallow graves on the property. When deputies tried to ask Chavez how she had killed them, she began singing over their questions, the sheriff said.

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Chavez was arrested and charged with four counts of torture involving the infliction of serious physical pain or death to an animal, according to the sheriff and jail records.

Each third-degree felony count carries a $25,000 bond, bringing the total bond to $100,000, jail records show.

Budensiek also said Chavez is a Venezuelan national in the United States unlawfully and has an immigration hold, meaning she is not expected to be released soon.

The Florida Department of Children and Families removed the children from the mobile home and placed them in their father’s custody, the sheriff said. Their exact relationship with Chavez remains unclear.

“Unfortunately, this is a tragic set of circumstances,” Budensiek said, describing the trauma suffered by the children after losing their pets and the difficult scene deputies had to manage.

The two kittens rescued from the backyard are now staying with a foster family and are doing well, according to their caregiver, Jennifer Jagdeo.

Jagdeo told WPBF that she received a call on Friday from the Humane Society and immediately took in the three-week-old kittens. 

‘I know, it’s not even a hope, I know that they are going to do amazing things over the next couple of weeks with us. They’re gonna continue to grow. They’re going to be big, fluffy little kittens, and they are going to find their forever home,’ Jagdeo said. 

She said that the kittens were ‘a little bit sluggish, a little slower,’ when she first received them, ‘but now it’s a complete turnaround.’ 

The kittens will need to remain in foster care for about two more months before they can be adopted, as they are so young. After that, Jagdeo is confident that the kittens will find the perfect family. 

‘They are meant to be here. They have a purpose, whether it’s to heal some child’s heart or some family’s heart or bring joy to them. They definitely have a purpose,’ she said. 

A 42-year-old Atlanta-area teacher has been identified as the Six Flags visitor who died after falling from a roller coaster while riding alongside his son.

Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem was killed Monday after plunging from the 200-foot Goliath ride at Six Flags Over Georgia, according to 11Alive.

His family remembered him as a devoted educator who was deeply passionate about his work and proud of his metro Atlanta community, the outlet reported.

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Kariem was riding with his son as his wife and daughter watched from below when he was somehow ejected from his seat. Witnesses said he struck the coaster cars three times during the fall before landing below.

The tragic incident was also captured in portions of the park’s official ride-photo images. Some of the souvenir photos reportedly showed other passengers covered in Kariem’s blood.