A Warner Robins woman's federal lawsuit says TV talk show host Ellen DeGeneres humiliated her by mispronouncing her name and turning it into a breast joke.
Titi Pierce, who said she's a Robins Air Force Base engineer and a real-estate agent, filed the lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Macon.
According her lawsuit, her first name is pronounced, "Tee Tee," "as grammar dictates."
She says it's a Nigerian name, meaning "flower."
But according to the lawsuit, on Feb. 22, DeGeneres used a picture of Pierce's real-estate sign, featuring her name, in a comedy segment titled, "What's Wrong With These Ads.... and These Signs?"
DeGeneres read her name as "titty Pierce," the lawsuit says, causing "immediate ridicule and raucous laughter" from the audience.
Worse, the lawsuit, says, the DeGeneres show included Pierce's cell-phone number in the picture used.
Attending a family funeral out of state, the lawsuit says, Pierce began getting harassing and threatening phone calls at all hours of the day and night.
She and her husband have also faced ridicule at home in Warner Robins, the suit claims.
Pierce says she reached out to DeGeneres to complain.
Her phone number was blurred in a copy of the segment that was posted to the DeGeneres show's website.
But it was visible again when the show was repeated in April, the lawsuit says.
Once again, Pierce claims, she received harassing phone calls and faced ridicule on the streets of Warner Robins.
One of her friends complained on the DeGeneres show's Facebook page, saying that Pierce was "a real person with real feelings."
Pierce's lawsuit is filed against Warner Brothers Entertainment, parent company of the DeGeneres show.
It claims that DeGeneres and Warner Brothers defamed her, invaded her privacy and intentionally inflicted distress.
Pierce is asking for damages from Warner Brothers and a jury trial on her lawsuit. She also doesn't want the segment to air again.
She did not return our phone call on Friday.
We also could not reach her attorney or Warner Brothers for comment.
The Ellen DeGeneres Show airs weekdays at 4 p.m. on 13WMAZ.
