The battle behindThe Blind Sidecontinues to get ugly.
On Monday, Michael Oher, 37,filed a legal petition claimingthat Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy did not legally adopt him but tricked him into making them his conservators before earning millions from what he said was his falsified life story, which was depicted in the Oscar-nominated film starring Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw.
The Blind Sidemade over $300 million at the box office and went on to earn a nomination for best picture at the 2010 Academy Awards, with Bullock taking home the best actress prize.
A source close to the film tells PEOPLE the Tuohys have received approximately $700,000 total in rights, payments and profits, which was intended to be divided between the family members — Sean, Leigh Anne, their two biological children and Oher.
Matthew Sharpe/Getty
“The Tuohys have not received millions of dollars from the movie,” says the source. “They have not even received $1 million from the movie.”
Marty Singer, an attorney who is representing the Tuohy family, flatly rejected Oher’s claims.
“When Michael Lewis, a friend of Sean’s since childhood, was approached about turning his book on Mr. Oher and the Tuohys into a movie about their family, his agents negotiated a deal where they received a small advance from the production company and a tiny percentage of net profits. They insisted that any money received be divided equally. And they have made good on that pledge,”said Singer in a statement shared with PEOPLE.
“The Blind Side” starred Quinton Aaron and Sandra Bullock.Ralph Nelson/Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett
Ralph Nelson/Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett
Singer’s statement continued: “The evidence – documented in profit participation checks and studio accounting statements – is clear: over the years, the Tuohys have given Mr. Oher an equal cut of every penny received fromThe Blind Side.”
At a Wednesday news conference in Memphis, ESPNreportstwo lawyers for the Tuohy family said that, overall, each member of the family and Oher made about $100,000 from the movie.
Farese added that Oher’s money was first paid to the Tuohys, who then gave Oher his portion. The lawyers said the arrangement allowed Oher to comply with NCAA rules. They added that Oher did not want to change how the money was distributed even when he went on to the NFL.
In his petition, Oher also claims he unknowingly authorized the couple to be his conservators in 2004, “despite the fact that he was over 18 years of age and had no diagnosed physical or psychological disabilities.”
“Michael trusted the Tuohys and signed where they told him to sign,” the legal filing states. “What he signed, however, and unknown to Michael until after February 2023, were not adoption papers, or the equivalent of adoption papers.”
The conservatorship papers he wound up signing instead gave the Tuohys “total control” over Oher’s ability to sign contracts, the petition alleges. His filing claims the Tuohys have “falsely and publicly represented themselves” as Oher’s adoptive parents and enriched themselves in doing so.
Leigh Anne Tuohy/ Instagram
Sean TuohytoldDaily MemphianMonday the conservatorship was unrelated to the movie, claiming it was a way to appease theNCAA, the nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics, when it appeared Oher was likely to play football at theUniversity of Mississippi.
The Tuohy family attorney said in his statement: “In spite of the false allegation in the lawsuit, the Tuohys have always been upfront about how a conservatorship (from which not one penny was received) was established to assist with Mr. Oher’s needs, ranging from getting him health insurance and obtaining a driver’s license to helping with college admissions. Should Mr. Oher wish to terminate the conservatorship, either now or at anytime in the future, the Tuohys will never oppose it in any way.”
source: people.com
