Thank you for being a free subscriber to Hung Up! But I’m guessing you hit this paywall a lot … you already opened this email, just go ahead and upgrade your subscription already!
Kelly Clarkson at SiriusXM’s Front Row Series on February 20, 2026 in New York City. (Photo: Noam Galai/Getty Images for SiriusXM)
What do you call it when God gives you a vision? When you are Howard Beale (Network) or Moses/Abraham (the Bible) or Raven Baxter (That’s So Raven)? I received a vision from God yesterday afternoon: That’s enough of that, God said. Time to wrap up this whole Kelly Clarkson versus the Brooklyn Heights magic shop¹ business.
Was Kelly Clarkson, wearing a big T-shirt and a Fjällräven backpack, unfairly profiled as a white woman who couldn’t afford a $15,000 animatronic bird, rather than as a white woman who could afford a $15,000 animatronic bird? Was it punching down for her to complain about a patronizing sales associate? Is Clarkson’s complaint “vintage Twitter drama,” the kind that “celebrities don’t do anymore?” Is the shop now “in danger?” Has anyone decided whether the shopkeeper is annoying? Is the bird actually for sale or was it just accompanied by a price tag (that has since been replaced, the price upped to $15,000,000)? Is there really a man in Seattle who made the animatronic bird? Was Kelly Clarkson wrong to double down? Is the shop milking the attention unjustly? Did the shop leak video of the exchange to Pulitzer Prize-winning sports reporter Pablo Torre?² Did the security footage exonerate Kelly Clarkson or validate her? Has anyone asked the bird what it thinks? Did the bird want to be bought? Does it see a cut of any of that money?³
Continue reading this post for free in the Substack app
