Index: wp-includes/post-template.php
===================================================================
--- wp-includes/post-template.php	(revision 20552)
+++ wp-includes/post-template.php	(working copy)
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@
  * an array. See the function for what can be override in the $args parameter.
  *
  * The title before it is displayed will have the tags stripped and {@link
- * esc_attr()} before it is passed to the user or displayed. The default
+ * esc_attr()} before it is passed to the user or displayed. The default,
  * as with {@link the_title()}, is to display the title.
  *
  * @since 2.3.0
@@ -70,15 +70,15 @@
  * @return string|null Null on failure or display. String when echo is false.
  */
 function the_title_attribute( $args = '' ) {
-	$title = get_the_title();
+	$defaults = array( 'before' => '', 'after' =>  '', 'echo' => true, 'post' => 0 );
+	$r = wp_parse_args( $args, $defaults );
+	extract( $r, EXTR_SKIP );
 
+	$title = get_the_title( $post );
+
 	if ( strlen($title) == 0 )
 		return;
 
-	$defaults = array('before' => '', 'after' =>  '', 'echo' => true);
-	$r = wp_parse_args($args, $defaults);
-	extract( $r, EXTR_SKIP );
-
 	$title = $before . $title . $after;
 	$title = esc_attr(strip_tags($title));