admin “Their relationship continued to deteriorate as he learned that he was the only member of the family not receiving royalty checks from the movie, and it was permanently fractured when he realized he wasn’t adopted and a part of the family,” Stranch said.
The Tuohy family responded with an allegation of their own
Through their attorney, Martin Singer, the Tuohys said that Oher tried to enact a “shakedown” on them before filing the petition. According to Singer, Oher told the family “he would plant a negative story about them in the press unless they paid him $15 million.” Their son also told his side of the story on a Barstool Sports podcast.
The Tuohy family and their children allegedly made millions of dollars in Blind Side royalties while Oher got nothing
The legal filing says that Oher unknowingly gave away the rights to his life story to 20th Century Fox “without any payment whatsoever.” The filing also says Oher has no memory of ever signing that contract, and if he did, it was not correctly explained to him. The Tuohy family, meanwhile, allegedly received profits from the movie, which grossed over $300 million at the box office and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. Sean Tuohy has denied that claim and said the family only made money off Lewis’ book. “We’re devastated,” Tuohy told the Daily Memphian. “It’s upsetting to think we would make money off any of our children. But we’re going to love Michael at 37 just like we loved him at 16.”
The Tuohys wrote a book in 2010 titled “In a Heartbeat: Sharing the Power of Cheerful Giving.” In that book, they say they received a flat fee from the movie, and divided it between Leigh Anne, Sean, their two biological children, and Oher. The petition Oher filed maintains that he did not receive any money from the highly successful film, though he had a suspicion that others did. According to Oher’s petition, the Tuohys each received $225,000 and 2.5% of the movie’s proceeds. The New York Post reported that they spent that money on things like private jet flights to Disneyland and ski resorts.
Oher did not begin to investigate any of this until after he retired from the NFL
If you’re wondering why this took so long to come to light, Oher says he never looked into this while he was playing, but started to poke around once he was no longer receiving NFL checks.
Michael Lewis said Hollywood has been the main beneficiary of the story
The author has come under fire, as well, for not fully investigating the story. In a Washington Post interview published on Wednesday afternoon, Lewis said that a Hollywood studio paid $250,000 for the rights to adapt his book, which he shared 50-50 with the Tuohys (who have said they shared a portion of their cut with Oher, which he denies). After paying taxes and agent fees, Lewis cleared $70,000. “Everybody should be mad at the Hollywood studio system,” Lewis told the Washington Post. “Michael Oher should join the writers strike. It’s outrageous how Hollywood accounting works, but the money is not in the Tuohys’ pockets.”
There have been seemingly unironic cries from the internet that Bullock should return the Oscar she won for portraying an allegedly untruthful woman. Quinton Aaron, who played Oher in the film, says the idea that Bullock should be punished “doesn’t make any sense.” The actor, who has also appeared in episodes of One Tree Hill and Law & Order: SVU went on to say, “Sandra Bullock didn’t have anything to do with the real story… I think that people just need to chill out, relax and let the families involved handle whatever is going on.”
