This is getting messy. Now everyone is getting involved in “The Blind Side” drama.
For the last three days, it’s been a nonstop battle of “he said, she said,” when it comes to the nature of Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy’s relationship with former NFL player Michael Oher.
He was the subject of the Oscar-nominated movie, “The Blind Side,” and he filed a 14-page petition in a Tennessee court claiming that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy never adopted him and that they instead tricked him into signing a conservatorship document that allowed them to make business deals in his name.
He’s also alleging that the Tuohys made millions of dollars from the movie and he hasn’t made a single cent, despite his life story being the subject of the film.
Although the Tuoyhs have admitted that they did have Oher sign a conservatorship document when he was 18, they have denied all the allegations that he hasn’t been paid royalties for “The Blind Side.”
Now Michael Lewis, the author of the 2006 book, “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game,” (the book the movie was based on) is coming to the defense of the Tuohys, saying that they never made millions off the film and that they fairly paid Oher all the money he is owed.
From the Washington Post:
According to Lewis, the film made around half a billion dollars, but the equity stake in the movie was not as lucrative as it would appear. In fact, he said, he had called his own representatives at Creative Artists Agency over the years, following the movie’s success, asking about his share of the profits.
Lewis said that ultimately after agent fees and taxes, he and the Tuohy family received around $350,000 each from the profits of the movie. Lewis said the Tuohys planned to share the royalties among the family members, including Oher, but Oher began declining his royalty checks, Lewis said. Lewis said he believed the Tuohy family had deposited Oher’s share in a trust fund for Oher’s son.
During the interview with the Post, Lewis also said, “Everybody should be mad at the Hollywood studio system. Michael Oher should join the writer’s strike. It’s outrageous how Hollywood accounting works, but the money is not in the Tuohys’ pockets.
He later said, “What I feel really sad about is I watched the whole thing up close. They showered him with resources and love. That he’s suspicious of them is breathtaking. The state of mind one has to be in to do that — I feel sad for him.”
This feud between a once-loving family has become something much larger than I even thought it would be. First Oher is claiming he was never adopted and the movie was BS. Then the Tuohys allege that Michael is just trying to take money from them. Now Michael Lewis says Oher needs to join the writer’s strike? What the hell is going on? How will this end?