It's been a full week since the 'Cosby Show' star was shamed for working a traditional job, and while the experience was devastating, it has also been a blessing, he says. 
 
 The first person Geoffrey Owens contacted after discovering an article would be published in which he would be shamed for his job at Trader Joe's was his 19-year-old son — to apologize. 
 
 "He was the first person I thought of, and I texted, 'I am really sorry if this embarrasses you.' And he texted me back a beautiful response that made me cry. And I knew I was going to be OK," said the former Cosby Show star. 
 
 Granting an interview to The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday, exactly one week after a story about Owens working as a cashier in a New Jersey Trader Joe's appeared in The Daily Mail, the actor called the entire experience a "blessing," albeit a painful one. 
 
 "I don't want to be presumptuous and say because of my situation, we've started a change, but I think it is certainly less shameful to admit that we are all working people who do what we need to do," said the 57-year-old Owens, whose shaming incited a massive backlash toward those who took his picture and the few outlets that ran with the gossip. 
 
 "It was mean-spirited," he told THR. "I am a very private person, but I chose this life, so I accepted it. I didn't feel any impulse to lash out, but I was devastated. Fortunately, that didn't last very long when all the support came in." 
 
 And now, the jobs offers are also rolling in. Owens revealed that, even though he made it clear in previous interviews he was not looking for a handout just because of the situation, he has been offered, and is mulling over, a "whole handful" of television offers. "It's been a real generosity of spirit and a generosity of action where that is concerned," he said. 
 
 Owens said he knew the gossip piece was coming when he was contacted by the reporter a few days before it was published. So, he texted his son, talked to his wife, quit his job at Trader Joe's ("I felt like I had to leave the store") and prepared for the fallout. 
 
 "I imagined the worst-case scenario to brace myself, and it somehow managed to be worse than I expected," he said. "The pictures of me, the words that were used to describe me, were so demeaning. It was humiliating, acutely, for a very short time — and then there was this amazing rescue from the world." 
 
 Social media came alive with outrage when the gossip was posted. Stars immediately came to Owens' defense, many sharing their own stories of less-than-glamorous jobs they did between scripts to make ends meet. Others, including some old friends, reached out directly. 
 
 "Keshia Knight Pulliam, Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Sabrina Le Beauf [all Cosby Show alum] have all been in touch and all have been lovely, as you would expect friends to be," said the actor. 
 
 As to whether he would go back to Trader Joe's if he needed to in the future, Owens didn't hesitate in answering: "Yes. They said, 'Don't consider it leaving, consider it an indeterminate leave of absence.' So they wanted to hold my place open in case I ever wanted to come back, which I thought was really cool." ||||| Nicki Minaj is all about giving back. 
 
 On Wednesday, the "MotorSport" rapper revealed on her Beats 1 Queen Radio show that she is donating $25,000 to former Cosby Show actor Geoffrey Owens after he was shamed for working at Trader Joe's. ET caught up with Minaj at the Daily Front Row Fashion Awards in NYC, where she explained why she wanted to help out the actor. 
 
 "Some people are on the internet and seeking attention, and he’s just the antithesis of that. So I felt like, 'Oh my God, could you imagine?'" she told ET during the event's red carpet. "We all have done jobs like that and I just thought, what if that were me? Or a family member and they were minding their own business, working to feed their family and somebody tried to humiliate them? I don’t like the way that feels." 
 
 Minaj, meanwhile, confirmed to ET that she was going to reach out to Owens, who is best known for playing Sondra Huxtable's doctor husband, Elvin Tibideaux, on The Cosby Show. "Tell him that I’m going to have my team contact him because I hope he doesn’t take it the wrong way," she said. "I just want to help him in any way I can." 
 
 Gary Gershoff/WireImage 
 
 During her radio show, the rapper was upset someone would take a photo of the actor while he was "bagging groceries to feed his family." 
 
 "That man is now getting so many opportunities," Minaj expressed. "I personally want to donate on behalf of Queen Radio $25,000 to Geoffrey Owens. You know why? Imma tell you something. This man is a whole f**king legend in these streets." 
 
 Owens made headlines this week after a woman snapped photos of him while he was working at the grocery store. The pictures were later published by multiple outlets. The 57-year-old actor then appeared on Good Morning America to talk about the attention he had received after being shamed for having a job at Trader Joe's. Owens, however, also received a slew of positive and supportive messages from fans and fellow actors. 
 
 Tyler Perry even tweeted that he was offering Owens a role on one of his OWN shows. ET sat down with Owens this week, where the actor expressed his gratitude and thanked Perry for the offer. 
 
 "That was kind of cool. I mean, that kind of sounded like he was saying, 'Come work with me.' I'm so, like, skeptical. Like, really?" Owens told ET. "Are you actually saying come work with me? Because we've never worked together before. So, that's a very, very generous thing for him to say. And we'll see what happens with that. But, that's encouraging." 
 
 Owens has actually stopped working at Trader Joe's for now but is thankful for the outpouring love and support. 
 
 "When I quit, the guys at the store said, you know, 'Don't quit, let's keep it open, let's have it like an indefinite leave of absence,'" he shared. "OK, that's cool, that's great, but basically I left at that point because I felt like, just for my personal sake, my dignity and my emotional wellbeing, I didn't want to be in the store while I felt like people might be staking out the place as they did, actually. People came to the store and they were staking it out and stuff. I didn't feel like that was going to be good for my spiritual being, so I felt like I needed to at least temporarily step out, and I think that was the wise thing to do, actually." 
 
 For more on Owens, watch below. 
 
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 Related Gallery ||||| After a customer took a photo of Geoffrey Owens working at Trader Joe’s in New Jersey, the former Cosby Show star’s first thought was of his son, as he feared the 19-year-old would be humiliated when people found out his dad worked at a supermarket. 
 
 “My wife and I were together when we saw it,” Owens, 57, exclusively tells PEOPLE. “It made me think of my son. I texted my son and warned him about the story breaking. I actually apologized to him for embarrassing him, because I knew that he’s in school away from us. I knew his classmates would see it and he’d be humiliated and embarrassed. I apologized to him.” 
 
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 Adding, “Even before the wave of support rolled in within an hour or two, he sent me a beautiful text back about how proud he was of me. I cried, I just broke down. He felt the opposite of embarrassment. He was so proud that I had taken the job. It was beautiful.” 
 
 “With my wife’s support and my son’s reactions, all before the counter-reaction came in, I felt very supported and loved. Then, the encouragement from all over the world started to come in and that was unbelievable and overwhelming.” 
 
 Larry Busacca/Getty Images 
 
 Though the actor says the attention he’s been receiving since the photo was published by some tabloids has been overwhelming, he’s grateful for the support. 
 
 “It really hurt,” Owens says of the photo. “I felt really humiliated. From the time that I heard that the article might be done to the time it came out, I tried to envision the worse case scenario just to prepare myself and then it was just a little bit worse. If that was possible. They went out of their way to find the very worst picture of me, in the worst shirt and the worst posture. The words they used to describe me were so demeaning. It hurt.” 
 
 RELATED ARTICLES: Woman Who Took Geoffrey Owens’ Photo at Trader Joe’s Says She Didn’t Mean to Shame Him 
 
 But, Owens hasn’t allowed that hurt to hold him down. 
 
 “I’ve learned to never give up,” he says. “A lot of times I was on the verge of quitting the job at Trader Joe’s, but I didn’t because I couldn’t. But it was sufficiently awkward and uncomfortable to be in that kind of job recognized from time to time. For me to want to get out of it, I wanted to leave at times even though I was grateful for it as work. But if I had done that, none of this would’ve happened. 
 
 “It’s because I kind of hung in there and persevered that all of this amazing stuff has now happened. I am someone who generally does persevere, but this confirmed to me how important it is to just hang in there. I think that’s so important for so many people in my industry. You just have to hang on!” 
 
 Owens played Elvin Tibideaux on The Cosby Show from 1985 to 1992. He has since appeared on a number of shows, including Divorce, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Secret Life of the American Teenager and Built to Last. ||||| Geoffrey Owens is feeling the love. 
 
 The former Cosby Show actor expressed his gratitude for the amount of support he’s received after the world learned he was working at a Trader Joe’s grocery store between acting gigs. 
 
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 “It’s been surreal,” he said on Good Morning America. “It’s been nonstop contact and emails, phone calls, texts and interviews. It’s actually bizarre — a lot of fun though.” 
 
 Last week, the Daily Mail and Fox News published photos — snapped by a shopper — of Owens bagging groceries at a Trader Joe’s in New Jersey. 
 
 Robin Marchant/Getty; Robin Marchant/Getty 
 
 Owens, who worked at the grocery store for 15 months, first took the job because he wanted “flexibility” in order to stay in the entertainment business; he’s since quit over all the attention. 
 
 Following the photos going viral, filmmaker Tyler Perry offered Owens, 57, a job on an OWN drama. 
 
 Outpouring of support for "Cosby Show" actor: https://t.co/0wZJnpowI9 @ABonTV has Geoffrey Owens' message this morning pic.twitter.com/d8nXVC3YHH — Good Morning America (@GMA) September 5, 2018 
 
 “#GeoffreyOwens I’m about to start shootings OWN’s number one drama next week! Come join us!!!” Perry tweeted. 
 
 “I have so much respect for people who hustle between gigs,” he continued. “The measure of a true artist.” 
 
 #GeoffreyOwens I’m about to start shootings OWN’s number one drama next week! Come join us!!! I have so much respect for people who hustle between gigs. The measure of a true artist. — Tyler Perry (@tylerperry) September 4, 2018 
 
 Owens said he was touched by the offer. 
 
 “It’s certainly very generous of him,” said Ownes. “To even just put that out there is very encouraging.” 
 
 And while Owens, who played Elvin Tibideaux on The Cosby Show from 1985-92, said he was “really devastated” at first after the photos came out, he has now seen the humor in the situation. 
 
 “I never would have imagined this in my wildest dreams,” he said. “What’s a way to get publicity? Take a job at Trader Joe’s!” ||||| 'Cosby' Star Geoffrey Owens Accepts Offer from Tyler Perry 10-Episode Run!!! 
 
 Geoffrey Owens Accepts Offer From Tyler Perry and Will Appear on 10 Episodes 
 
 EXCLUSIVE 
 
 Geoffrey Owens is about to get a hell of a lot of screen time thanks to Tyler Perry -- he's accepted the mega producer's offer for an acting gig -- and it's a big one! 
 
 Owens, who starred on "The Cosby Show," was recently photographed working as a cashier at Trader Joe's. Geoffrey was shamed by many for the cashier job and Tyler reached out via Twitter, saying, "I'm about to start shooting OWN's number one drama next week! Come join us!!!" 
 
 Sources familiar with the deal tell us joining Tyler is exactly what Geoffrey will do. We're told he's going to appear on Perry's hit, "The Haves and the Have Nots." Even bigger ... it's not a one shot deal. We're told he'll have a recurring role and appear on 10 episodes. 
 
 The show -- on it's 6th season -- shoots in Atlanta, and we're told Owens will fly there next week to begin filming. 
 
 As for his salary ... that's unclear, but working one job is always better than two. ||||| A Georgia woman is suing Ellen DeGeneres after mispronouncing her name to make a breast joke during her daytime talk show. 
 
 Titi Pierce, 35, name is pronounced “Tee Tee … as grammar dictates”, she said in the lawsuit. But DeGeneres called her “titty Pierce”, reading one of the real estate agent’s adverts during a segment called “What’s Wong With These Ads…. and These Signs?” 
 
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 “In all of her 35 years of life, no one has ever referred to Ms Pierce as “titty” until the Defendant did so on February 22, 2016 on national television,” the lawsuit reads, adding that it led to “immediate ridicule” from the audience. 
 
 The lawsuit pointed out that producers did not blur out Ms Pierce’s personal cell phone number in the segment. She said she received “ridiculing and harassing” calls while attending an out-of-state family funeral. 
 
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 Ms Pierce filed the lawsuit against Warner Bros Entertainment, Inc, the parent company of the The Ellen Show. 
 
 Titi is a name that comes from Nigeria, meaning “flower”, according to the lawsuit. 
 
 Ms Pierce is seeking damages from Warner Bros, and demands they never show the segment again.
– The swelling tide of well wishes for the Cosby Show actor who was job-shamed by multiple media outlets may have just turned into something more lucrative. Sources tell TMZ that Geoffrey Owens has accepted a job offer by filmmaker and producer Tyler Perry, who tweeted earlier this week that the 57-year-old actor should "join us" on OWN's The Haves and the Have Nots, which Perry writes for and directs. TMZ reports that Owens is said to be slotted into a recurring role and will appear on 10 episodes, and that he's set to fly to Atlanta next week to begin filming. Owens had previously spoken on Perry's offer, though he simply called it a "generous" one and didn't indicate whether he'd take it, per People. In fact, Owens tells the Hollywood Reporter he's considering "a whole handful" of TV offers. "It's been a real generosity of spirit and a generosity of action," he says. Owens, who has since spoken on the "honor of the working person and the dignity of work," says his first concern when the photo of him broke was his 19-year-old son, People notes. He says he texted his son, who's away at school, to warn him and to apologize for the embarrassment—but his son texted right back to say how proud he was of Owens. "I cried, I just broke down," Owens says. "It was beautiful." One other person is stepping up to do right by Owens: Nicki Minaj, who told Entertainment Tonight she wants to donate $25,000 to the actor. "Some people are on the internet and seeking attention, and he's just the antithesis of that," she says. She notes she's having her rep reach out to Owens' people so he "doesn't take it the wrong way." (The woman who took the Owens photo is now speaking.)