Sunny Hostin, 57, renewed her criticism of Kelly Clarkson on Thursday after security footage from a Brooklyn curiosity shop surfaced online.
Hostin dissected the newly released clip during the Hot Topics segment on ABC’s “The View,” telling her co-hosts that the footage shifted her view of the dispute. “The video did change my perspective a little bit,” she said on the daytime talk show. “It seems like she kind of had a bit of a tantrum because she starts putting things back kind of quickly.” Hostin noted that Clarkson “wasn’t in the store very long.”
Guest co-host Raven-Symoné, 40, jumped in with a blunt assessment. “She was petty,” the former Disney Channel star said, and Hostin quickly agreed: “She was a little petty.”
Hostin also pressed the point that Clarkson’s massive social media following carries weight she should recognize. “When you have a huge platform, there comes a lot of responsibility with that,” she said. “I just can’t imagine that she doesn’t know that there’s that social media mob hanging out on the internet,” She added, “The rage machine is something I’m sure she has been subjected to because she’s a star.”
Raven-Symoné pushed back hard on that framing, arguing that celebrity status shouldn’t silence personal grievances. “I think it’s unfair just because she had that many followers she’s not allowed to express how she feels about what happened to her,” she said. The “That’s So Raven” alum drew on her own experience, recalling a red carpet incident where fans watching footage failed to grasp why she felt disrespected. “I would say to those watching me and to those listening to Kelly, our experience about the situation might not resonate with you the same way that it resonated with [us],” she continued. “You don’t know my past. You don’t know what I’ve been through.”
The co-host also raised Clarkson’s working-class upbringing as context for her reaction. “If somebody’s touching her trigger button about wealth or money, you don’t know how she received that,” Raven-Symoné said. She added a pointed defense of the store’s conduct: “I saw the video, too, and I feel like if you treated her like every other person that came into that store, then you’re telling everybody they can’t afford it.”
Hostin had already staked out her position earlier in the week. On Monday’s episode of “The View,” she said the entire clash should have stayed offline. “I don’t feel great about it being on social media,” she said then, adding that she thought the situation should have been “handled privately.”
The whole saga began Saturday when Clarkson, 44, took to X to accuse Art of Play in Brooklyn Heights of treating her like Julia Roberts’ character in “Pretty Woman.” The “Since U Been Gone” singer claimed staffers had mistreated her during a visit to the shop. When the store later said the $15,000 mechanical bird she wanted wasn’t for sale, Clarkson fired back on the same platform. “Okay, cool. So you’re not only rude, you’re also a liar. Got it,” she wrote. “I never blast people, but you, my friend, were an exception.”
Art of Play responded with a statement clarifying that Clarkson had been in the store for only five minutes and calling the episode a “misunderstanding.” Co-owner Adam Rubin later blasted Clarkson’s handling of the dispute in an exclusive interview, calling the saga “ludicrous” and “surreal.” He framed it as a “he-said, she-said” situation that never warranted public escalation. “So she’s going to say one thing, I’m going to say another thing,” Rubin said. “The point of it is, nothing happened in the shop that was so dramatic that it’s worth throwing a Molotov cocktail into a mom-and-pop business.” He also condemned Clarkson for what he termed a “reprehensible abuse of power.”
The mechanical bird at the center of the dispute has since become a spectacle in its own right, with the shop slapping an eight-figure price tag on the item as the story went viral.
Clarkson appeared unbowed by the mounting criticism as she returned to her Las Vegas residency Wednesday, greeting fans with a simple question: “Are you all ready for a good night?”
The security footage that fueled Thursday’s “View” debate surfaced on Tuesday’s episode of “Pablo Torre Finds Out,” adding fresh fuel to a conflict that has now drawn in daytime television hosts, shop owners, and millions of online onlookers.
Clarkson’s Las Vegas shows continue through the weekend.