Georgia Woman Sues Ellen DeGeneres Over Breast Joke

A Georgia woman is suing Ellen Degeneres, claiming that a joke the talk show host made about her name invaded her privacy and caused her emotional distress.

Titi Pierce, a Realtor from Warner Robins, claims she was harmed by the joke, which compares a mispronounced version of her name with a slang term for breasts.

A Feb. 22 episode of "The Ellen Degeneres Show" featured a segment called "What's Wrong With These Signs?"

In it, one of Pierce's real estate signs is shown.

"Ah, Titty Pierce. Sounds like she might have spent some time in that nipple home," DeGeneres says in the clip.

The joke is a reference to a previous image of a business named Nipple Convalescent Home.

Pierce's lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, notes that her first name is pronounced "Tee Tee." The lawsuit contends that "Titi" is a Nigerian name that means "flower."

"In all of her 35 years of life, no one has ever referred to Ms. Pierce as 'titty,' until Defendant did so," her lawsuit claims.

It says that she was traveling to a funeral at the time the show originally aired and that because her cellphone number on the sign was not blurred, she received "hundreds" of phone calls, with people laughing and mocking her name.

The suit says Pierce reached out to the show multiple times to point out the proper pronunciation of her name and ask that the segment not be aired again. However, the episode aired again on April 15, the lawsuit says, and Pierce received more harassing phone calls.

The suit also claims she and her family were mocked in person over the segment by people they met in Warner Robins.

Eventually, the show blurred out Pierce's number on clips of the segment that appear online.

A Warner Bros. spokesman declined comment to the Macon Telegraph, saying the company, which produces the show, had not yet been served with a copy of the lawsuit.

The suit accuses DeGeneres and her show of invasion of privacy, misuse of Pierce's likeness, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. It seeks unspecified monetary relief.

(Photo via WarnerBros.com)