Michael Oher Claims Tuohys Are Reporting 'False' Financial Numbers In Court Filings
Former NFL player Michael Oher has reportedly accused his former conservators, Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy, of filing “demonstrably false” financial numbers in a court-ordered account of the money that they made off his story in the hit movie “The Blind Side.”
Oher’s attorneys on Tuesday said the couple failed to report about $2.5 million that they took from him in 2011, allegedly to invest while Oher played in the NFL, according to their filing in Tennessee’s Shelby County Probate Court, which was reviewed by The Memphis Commercial Appeal and ESPN.
The Tuohys had told the court earlier this month that they paid Oher more than $138,000, which they said was roughly one-third of what they earned from the 2009 movie.
Michael Oher with Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy in 2008 before a football game at the University of Mississippi.
The documents “are contradictory, confusing, false in material ways and wholly inadequate,” Oher’s attorneys said of the couple’s financial filing.
Oher’s attorneys asked the court to order the Tuohys to file a new financial account that’s “complete and honest.” They also asked the court to “sanction” the couple for “willful failure to fulfill their obligations” to both Oher and the court.
Oher filed a lawsuit against the couple in August, accusing them of tricking him into signing papers that made them his conservators. This allowed them to take millions from him while profiting off his life story, he alleged.
In his lawsuit, Oher also said the Tuohys never legally adopted him, as depicted in the film. Oher’s foster brothers have also spoken out about what they said were gross inaccuracies in the movie that cast the Tuohys as heroic figures.
People involved in the “Blind Side” movie, and the book of the same name, have since spoken out about the money dispute.
The movie’s producers told E! News in August that the Tuohy family was paid about $767,000 through a talent agency that was representing their family and Oher. The contracts “did not include significant payouts in the event of the film’s success,” the producers said, noting that the agency would have also taken a commission.
Michael Lewis, who wrote the “Blind Side” book, which was published in 2006, told The Washington Post that no one involved in the book saw millions from the movie.
“Everybody should be mad at the Hollywood studio system,” Lewis said. “It’s outrageous how Hollywood accounting works, but the money is not in the Tuohys’ pockets.”
The film, which reportedly cost $29 million to make, grossed more than $300 million at the box office. It won an Oscar for Sandra Bullock’s performance.
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