Most real estate agents who put their names on roadside signs would love national publicity from a TV star, I suspect.
Titi Pierce’s situation is a little different, though.
The Warner Robins Realtor complained that a joke by comedian Ellen DeGeneres caused her unwanted public ridicule. But Pierce is drawing far more attention to the joke and her name after suing Warner Bros. Entertainment, the producer of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."
It began with a segment DeGeneres did earlier this year about funny signs. She showed a picture of one of Pierce’s, which was sent in by a Georgia fan of the show. The sign included Pierce’s name and phone number.
Then DeGeneres, maybe the most gentle comedian on TV, pronounced Pierce’s first name like the slang word for a female breast.
Pierce heard about it later. Apparently she was aghast about the anatomical connection. “Grammar dictates” that her name is pronounced “TEE TEE,” according to her suit.
I kept trying to sound out the two. There really isn’t an ocean of difference between the pronunciations. But apparently it’s enough to seek serious monetary damages.
“In all of her 35 years of life, no one has ever referred to Ms. Pierce as ‘titty’ until” DeGeneres did, according to the suit, brought by attorney Stacey Godfrey Evans, who also happens to be a Georgia legislator.
Really? I guess Pierce has lived in more refined areas than I have. I’ve heard the twisting of any name that ever came close to sounding like a body part. Or a compromising position. Or a bathroom function.
I’m suspect giggling customers still urge store clerks to page Ben Dover, Seymour Butts and I.P. Freely.
Pierce didn’t sue DeGeneres personally. I asked Pierce’s attorney, Evans, why. She gave me an answer that didn’t really clear things up.
“Ellen is the voice piece for the show that is produced and published by Warner Bros,” she wrote me in an email. “This isn’t personal against Ellen. But she spoke the damaging words on her show”
Pierce doesn’t seem like she’d be so easily rattled, given what she does for a living: She’s also an electronics engineer for the Air Force, according to her online profile.
She must have guts to handle tough challenges. About half of her online real estate listings are for aged homes that start with the unnerving caution: “Sold ‘As-Is.’”
But if she was distressed over the initial publicity about her name, she’s only fed the buzz machine with her suit. It has gotten international coverage. I Googled her name and got 467,000 hits, a big haul for a Middle Georgia Realtor who had a thin online presence pre-Ellen.
Evans, the attorney, said her client “would prefer there not be so much attention on her, but there was no other way to seek justice and recover for the wrong done ….”
One Facebook poster suggested that the real estate firm Pierce is tied to “should pay Ellen and Titi for the free, worldwide press - would never know about you until this! We need levity in this world not lawsuits.”
The local real estate office had posted earlier that it was “Loving that our own Titi Pierce of CBRF was on the Ellen DeGeneres show, but wish it was because they knew how fabulous and classy Titi is and not to poke fun.”
TMZ quoted executives from the show saying: “We try to have fun every day and make people laugh and never intend to hurt anyone’s feelings.”
DeGeneres didn’t accuse Pierce of being a bad person or weak real estate agent. She made a joke about a name on a public sign, which Pierce contends was an invasion of her privacy.
But lawsuits seem like a societal default.
Pierce reported suffering “stress, emotional distress, embarrassment, humiliation, anger and other mental pain and suffering.”
She received “ridiculing and harassing” calls on her personal cell phone — a number she publicizes on her real estate signs and her web site — while traveling to and attending a family wake and funeral. (Her phone number was blurred in online video of the segment, but it re-aired on TV in April with her number visible, she contends, despite her complaints to the show.)
She also reported facing ridicule in her town and at her work. Which makes me wonder if she plans to file another suit. Because apparently there’s no laughing in this matter.
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