Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres found herself in a bit of bother recently when she was faced with a lawsuit from a viewer over how she pronounced her name.
In a segment called 'What's Wrong With These Ads... and These Signs?' last year, Ellen joked about a real estate agent called 'Titi Pierce'. It came straight after a sign for a 'Nipple Convalescent Home', with the host quipping "Titty Pierce, sounds like she might have spent some time in that nipple home, I don't know".
Titi, however, was not too happy with getting that coverage, as her name is in fact pronounced Tee-tee, and it led to her being harassed with prank calls. She insisted that nobody had called her 'Titty' in her "35 years of life". (Maybe not to her face...)
Pierce took out a lawsuit against Ellen and the producers of the show, looking for monetary compensation as well as requesting the removal of Ellen's show from the air.
Sounds like she's milking it a bit, 'ey? Ahem....
Anyways, a judge was having none of it and said (according to court papers obtained by TMZ): "The letter 'i' in the English language can be pronounced in several ways. While Titi chooses to pronounce her name with 'e', there is nothing demonstrably false in pronouncing it with 'i' as DeGeneres did."
The case was ultimately thrown out by the judge and Ellen's show is contracted to run for another three years, which is the breast, sorry, best news really.
