A Georgia Realtor named Titi Pierce filed a federal lawsuit against Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. for a boob joke made on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."

Titi Pierce -- whose Nigerian first name is pronounced "Tee Tee" and means flower -- said she was driving to a funeral in Florida when she started getting harassing phone calls from people who saw her personal phone number on the "Ellen" show.

Her name was shown on a Coldwell Banker real estate ad during the February 22 show segment "What's Wrong with These Ads ... and These Signs?" Before getting to Pierce, Ellen showed off a sign for "Nipple Convalescent Home"; that was referenced when Ellen introduced the next sign. "My husband saw this sign and thought your viewers would enjoy the name of this Realtor," Ellen read off, then the camera showed the Titi Pierce sign. The audience laughed, assuming it was pronounced "Titty." Ellen joked, "Ah, Titty Pierce. Sounds like she might have spent some time in that nipple home, I don't know."

That segment aired twice; according to the Miami Herald, during the first airing, the show displayed her name and personal cell phone number at the top, with a second number blurred below. Her co-workers and office said they've received "ridiculing and harassing" phone calls.

Pierce is seeking unspecified monetary damages, and wants the segment pulled from TV, the Internet, and social media. Per the lawsuit, she alleges the show invaded her privacy by airing her name and cell phone number, and intentionally inflicted emotional distress.

Her attorney, Stacey Godfrey Evans, added that Pierce also wants to "stand up and say this is wrong and this is not how we treat people. We need to be more thoughtful than this. She's a real person with real feelings. She is a private, proud person, and she was humiliated on national television not once, but twice." Pierce also wants "to deter this kind of conduct in the future. Folks need to think twice before they smear a person on national television."

Pierce, 35, works as an electronics engineer at Robins Air Force Base while also selling local real estate; she said this is the first time anyone has joked about her name in reference to a breast.

Her company issued a statement of support on Facebook:


So far, many fans seemed to be backing Ellen (would they do the same if they were the ones fielding calls on their own cell phones?) although a few are standing up for Pierce, including one who wrote, "Nobody deserves to get harassing phone calls day and night, and neither did her co-workers and place of business. This didn't happen once, but twice..after she contacted the show and asked them to blur her info. It's not about someone making fun of her name, it's about a complete stranger's life being disrupted because of a joke made on national television."

Ellen has always shown herself to be a kind, empathetic person, and probably didn't intend for Pierce to be harassed by callers ... but it happened anyway. So far, she hasn't responded to the suit and probably won't, for however far it goes.

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