On August 14, Michael Oher, the former NFL player that the movie The Blind Side was based on, alleged in a court filing that the Tuohy family had deceived him about adopting him and deprived him of earnings from the film. Entertainment attorney Martin Singer said Oher’s allegations “that the Tuohys have ever sought to profit off Mr. Oher is not only offensive, it is transparently ridiculous.”
“Unbeknownst to the public, Mr. Oher has actually attempted to run this play several times before – but it seems that numerous other lawyers stopped representing him once they saw the evidence and learned the truth,” Martin Singer wrote as part of the Tuohy family’s full statement. “Sadly, Mr. Oher has finally found a willing enabler and filed this ludicrous lawsuit as a cynical attempt to drum up attention in the middle of his latest book tour… The Tuohys will always care deeply for Mr. Oher. They are heartbroken over these events… In the meantime, however, they will not hesitate to defend their good names, stand up to this shakedown and defeat this offensive lawsuit.”
Oher’s newest book, When Your Back’s Against the Wall, mentions his complicated relationship with the movie, which grossed over $300 million dollars. He claims that he never received his fair share of the movie’s cut to him and his family, and that the Tuohys kept all of it– because they had tricked him into a conservatorship instead of adopting him, as he alleges in his court filings. He also claims that several parts of the movie, such as him not having a bed before he was taken in by the family, were exaggerated.
There is no word on when the resulting court proceedings will start.