A woman is suing Ellen DeGeneres, saying the TV talk show host humiliated her by mispronouncing her name and turning it into a breast joke.
Titi Pierce, an Air Force Base engineer and a real-estate agent, says her first name is Nigerian and means "flower". It is also pronounced "Tee Tee".
However, in a segment first aired in February, DeGeneres used a picture of Pierce's real-estate sign and read her name as "Titty Pierce".
The lawsuit states this caused "immediate ridicule and raucous laughter" from the audience.
It also claims that Ms Pierce had never been referred to as "Titty" until DeGeneres mispronounced it.
The real-estate sign also featured Ms Pierce's mobile phone number, leading to harassing and threatening phone calls at all hours of the day and night, according to the lawsuit.
Pierce says she attempted to contact DeGeneres to complain and her phone number was blurred in a copy of the segment that was posted online, but clearly visible when it was aired again in April -- leading to further harassing phone calls and ridicule.
The lawsuit is filed against Warner Brothers Entertainment, parent company of the DeGeneres show, and claims that Pierce was defamed, had her privacy invaded and is the victim of intentionally inflicted distress.
Newshub.
