Well, this is a real bummer. Former Baltimore Ravens star offensive lineman Michael Oher, subject of one of the most inspirational films of the early 2000s, has alleged in court that it was all a scam for money.
In 2009, Warner Brothers released "The Blind Side," starring Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy, the tough talking football mom who, with her head coach husband Sean Tuohy, adopted a homeless teenage Michael Oher and turned him into a football phenomenon. In the film, the Tuohy family adopts Michael out of the goodness of their Christian hearts. The stardom, fame, and fortune were all just icing on the redemptive cake.
But on Monday, Oher petitioned a Tennessee court alleging that the Tuohys never actually adopted the gentle giant, but instead tricked him into a conservatorship whereby they were able to enrich themselves at the expense of Oher.
The details look…well…really bad.
The summer before Oher became a high school senior, the Tuohys invited him into their home with a promise to adopt him. The couple asked him to sign papers they assured were part of the "adoption process," but actually ended up being conservatorship papers that gave the couple full legal rights over Oher.
As legal conservators, the Tuohys were then able to negotiate a film deal with 20th Century Fox for almost a quarter million dollars up front, and an additional 2.5% of the film's profits. The film made over $300 million. That's at minimum a $7.5 million haul for the couple.
Michael's cut? You know, the guy who made the story memorable and profitable with his name, image, and likeness? He didn't get a dime.
Obviously, Oher made incredible money once he was in the NFL, but that's beside the point. The conservatorship papers stripped the football star of his legal rights until the age of 25.
"At no point did the Tuohys inform Michael that they would have ultimate control of all his contracts, and as a result Michael did not understand that if the Conservatorship was granted, he was signing away his right to contract for himself," the court papers say.
Late last night, Sean Tuohy responded to the allegations, saying the family was "devastated" by Michael's claims. Tuohy denied that the family ever tricked Michael or that they made any money off the film.
"It's upsetting to think we would make money off any of our children," he said. "But we're going to love Michael at 37 just like we loved him at 16."
In fairness to the Tuohy's, it does seem odd that Oher waited all these years to make this public. But if his claim really is true? Yikes.
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