Woman sues ‘Ellen’ show for making a breast joke about her name

While traveling to a funeral in Florida earlier this year, Titi Pierce, a Warner Robins Realtor, began receiving what would become a string of harassing phone calls from people, some who laughed uncontrollably and ridiculed her about her name.

Pierce contends the callers had viewed a segment on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” that’s called “What’s Wrong with These Ads … and These Signs?” The show aired Feb. 22.

A picture of one of Pierce’s real estate signs — bearing her name and cellphone number — was shown just after a sign reading “Nipple Convalescent Home,” which is unrelated to Pierce.

While showing the sign with Pierce’s name, DeGeneres paused and said, “Titty Pierce, sounds like she might have spent some time in that nipple home, I don’t know,” according to a federal lawsuit Pierce filed against Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. on Thursday.

Among her claims, Pierce alleges the show invaded her privacy by airing her name and personal cellphone number while also intentionally inflicting emotional distress, according to the suit.

She is seeking unspecified monetary damages and for Warner Bros. to be forced to stop airing the segment on TV, the internet or social media.

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,” said her attorney, Stacey Godfrey Evans.

“She’s a real person with real feelings,” Evans said. “She is a private, proud person, and she was humiliated on national television not once, but twice.”

Evans said 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.”

A Warner Bros. spokesman declined comment Friday, saying the company has not yet been served with a copy of the lawsuit.

Claims of harassment

According to the lawsuit:

Pierce, 35, works as an electronics engineer at Robins Air Force Base while also selling real estate for a local Coldwell Banker office.

Her mother named her Titi, a Nigerian name meaning “flower,” after consulting a Nigerian book of names shared with her by a friend.

The name is pronounced “TEE TEE.”

Never in her life has anyone referred to her with a connotation relating to a woman’s breast.

When first airing the segment, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” displayed one of Pierce’s real estate signs with her name and personal cell phone number at the top. A second phone number at the bottom of the sign was blurred out.

Pierce didn’t see the show’s initial airing but received calls while driving to the funeral in Tampa, during the wake and at the funeral.

Her co-workers and the real estate office also fielded “ridiculing and harassing” phone calls.

The office issued a statement on its company Facebook page to ward off callers saying, “Loving that our own Titi Pierce of CBRF (Coldwell Banker Robbins & Free) was on the Ellen DeGeneres show, but wish it was because they knew how fabulous and classy Titi is and not to poke fun. We love you Titi and are proud to have you in the CBRF Family.”

Pierce called the show Feb. 24 and March 14, telling staffers the correct pronunciation of her name and that her personal cellphone number hadn’t been blurred out. She asked the show to stop referencing her on the show or on social media.

At some point, the number was blurred on a video of the segment posted on the show’s Facebook page, but on April 15 the show was aired on TV again and the number still was visible.

Pierce contends she received more phone calls after the second airing.

Reached Friday, Pierce declined comment.

This story was originally published June 5, 2016 at 3:44 PM with the headline "Woman sues ‘Ellen’ show for making a breast joke about her name."