The Blind Side producers DEFEND the Tuohys against Michael Oher’s claims that they LIED about adopting him – and slam accusations they conned him out of millions, revealing the true amount paid to family AND NFL star for hit film
- Oher filed a motion this month to end the Tuohy’s conservatorship over him
- Athlete says he was tricked into a conservatorship, which enriched the Tuohys
- New reports claim Oher could have ended the conservatorship after age 25
The film company that produced The Blind Side has broken its silence to hit back Michael Oher’s allegations that the Tuohys did not adopt him and tricked him out of the movie’s earnings – while revealing the exact amount paid to the NFL player and the four members of the family for the film.
Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove – the co-heads of Alcon Entertainment – have defended their ‘true-life hit’, and claimed that recent accusations of the story being fabricated as ‘mischaracterizations and uninformed opinions.’
Former NFL star Oher shocked fans when he recently filed a petition in his native Tennessee to terminate the conservatorship initiated by the wealthy Tuohy family in 2004, when he was a heavily recruited 18-year-old left tackle.
At the time, the agreement was portrayed publicly as an adoption, but Oher has alleged that the conservatorship allowed Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy to profit off his story, while denying him film royalties.
To counter his claims, Alcon provided an accounting of payments to The Hollywood Reporter made in relation to the life rights to the project – which had initially been made at Fox, before Alcon inherited it by acquiring the project.
The Blind Side production company has broken its silence to hit back Michael Oher’s allegations that the Tuohy family did not adopt him and tricked him out of the movie’s earnings
The statement read: ‘The deal that was made by Fox for the Tuohy’s and Michael Oher’s life rights was consistent with the marketplace at that time for the rights of relatively unknown individuals.
‘Therefore, it did not include significant payouts in the event of the film’s success.
‘As a result, the notion that the Tuohys were paid millions of dollars by Alcon to the detriment of Michael Oher is false. In fact, Alcon has paid approximately $767,000 to the talent agency that represents the Tuohy family and Michael Oher (who, presumably, took commission before passing it through).’
The producers’ claims about the sum paid to the talent agency – which typically takes between 10 and 20 per cent commission – is in line with the Tuohys’ own claims that each member of their family, as well as Oher, received $100,000 each for the hit film.
In a statement issued via their lawyer, Martin D. Singer, the Tuohys insisted that the money they received for the film was split equally between the five.
‘They insisted that any money received be divided equally. And they have made good on that pledge,’ Singer said.
‘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 from ‘The Blind Side.’
The latest statement from the movie’s producers comes shortly after it was claimed that Oher could have ended the conservatorship a dozen years ago, after turning 25.
Alcon provided an accounting of payments made in relation to the life rights to the project; film stars Quinton Aaron and Sandra Bullock pictured in the 2009 flick
Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy are accused of enriching themselves by using Michael Oher
Former Baltimore Ravens tackle Michael Oher is requesting 19 years of financial records
‘It is still his desire that the Petitioners be recognized as his legal guardians at least until he reaches the age of 25 or until terminated by order of this court prior to that time,’ read the nine-page document obtained by The New York Post.
‘He is in need of their assistance and guidance and continued to be dependent upon them … As he has reached the age of 18 he seeks to have them appointed as his conservators for all purposes.’
DailyMail.com has not independently verified this conservatorship document.
Tennessee attorney Timothy Street told the Post that Oher could have asked a judge to terminate the conservatorship ‘at any point,’ although it remains unclear when he truly understood the arrangement he agreed to as an 18-year-old in 2004.
Oher’s attorneys claim he only discovered the existence of the conservatorship in February, according to last week’s filing obtained by Mail Sport.
However, in his 2011 memoir, I Beat The Odds, Oher referred to Sean and Leigh Anne as ‘my legal conservators.’
Meanwhile, the Tuohy family continued to portray themselves as Oher’s adoptive parents. In fact, the family charity website still refers to Sean as ‘Michael’s adoptive father.’
Regardless, Street believes Oher could have ended the conservatorship years earlier.
Michael Oher reportedly had the power to end his controversial conservatorship in 2009
Former Baltimore Ravens tackle Michael Oher is requesting 19 years of financial records
‘If you had enough financial savvy to sign a multi-million dollar contract with the NFL, you have to have enough savvy to know whether or not you want to remain in a conservatorship,’ Street said. ‘They won’t let you sign a contract like that if you’re slobbering all over yourself.’
Naturally, Oher’s attorneys see things differently.
‘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,’ Oher’s attorney wrote in the complaint.
‘Michael was falsely advised by the Tuohys that because he was over the age of eighteen, that the legal action to adopt Michael would have to be called a ”conservatorship” but it was, for all intents and purposes, an adoption.’
Oher has also questioned the authenticity of 2007 documents, in which he ostensibly signed away his life rights to Blind Side producers.
‘Michael Oher believes that the signature on this document is very similar to his own, and he does not know whether the signature was forged,’ his attorney wrote in the August 14 complaint, obtained by Mail Sport.
The Tuohy family could find themselves in legal jeopardy if it is revealed that they hid money from Oher, who recently filed a motion requesting the couple’s financial records.
‘If they misallocated a bunch of money and they had a fiduciary duty to protect him, they won’t have the light of justice,’ Street said.
Through their attorney, Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy have claimed that Oher tried to pressure them into paying him $15 million prior to his legal filing in Tennessee last week.
Oher claims he made several attempts to end the conservatorship, but the Tuohy’s ‘ignored’ the requests.
In a statement, the Tuohy’s attorneys said the family is willing to terminate the conservatorship, but wanted to ‘defend their good names, stand up to this shakedown and defeat this offensive lawsuit.’
READ THE FULL STATEMENT BY ALCON ENTERTAINMENT
As the Co-Founders and Co-CEOs of Alcon Entertainment, the company that financed THE BLIND SIDE, as well as being two of the movie’s producers, we feel it is now important for us to respond to some recent media reports, which include many mischaracterizations and uninformed opinions. The impetus for these stories has been a lawsuit by Michael Oher, which seems to have given critics and journalists alike a justification to unfairly pick apart the movie 14 years later – some going so far as to call it ‘fake’ or a ‘lie.’
THE BLIND SIDE was a film that no major studio would make, back when Alcon financed the film in 2009. The prevailing ‘wisdom’ was that a football movie starring a woman would not appeal to football fans, it had too much football to appeal to families, and that movies starring Black actors don’t work overseas.
Our opinion was that it would appeal to everyone, and, in 2009, when this country, and the world more broadly, was more hopeful and less divided – it did. The two of us are the longest-running interracial business partnership in the history of the film industry. We have led not through publicity or pontification, but rather through the quiet power of example.
In the story of THE BLIND SIDE we saw the better angels of human nature. We saw it in the Tuohy’s wonderful acts of kindness toward Michael Oher. However, more importantly, we saw it in the extraordinary courage that Michael Oher demonstrated in accepting the Tuohy’s generosity not as a handout, or as his saviors, but as a way through which he could improve his own life. Michael’s academic accomplishments and athletic achievements demonstrate this.
His raising of his own children now, who shall know a life of possibility the likes of which Michael never knew as a child, is the ultimate testament to Michael’s own strength and courage. In both of those regards, THE BLIND SIDE is verifiably authentic and will never be a lie or fake, regardless of the familial ups and downs that have occurred subsequent to the film.
Indeed, scores of trusted individuals, not the least of whom is Michael Lewis, one of our country’s most respected writers and journalists and the author of the book THE BLIND SIDE, have spoken of their first-hand knowledge of the authenticity of the Tuohys loving Michael dearly and raising Michael as their son through the end of high school, and then throughout college and onto the NFL.
We also want to speak to the business side of the equation, which it seems, in part, is where some of the current antipathy in the press toward the film is sourced. The film rights to Michael Lewis’s book, and the associated rights contracts were negotiated by Twentieth Century Fox and inherited by Alcon when the film was put in turnaround.
It is important to note that in 2006, the nature of life rights deals for books, documentaries and film, as well as the limitations of what college athletes were able to do and maintain eligibility, were very different than they are today.
Comparing them to today’s marketplace for those rights is akin to comparing a basketball Hall of Famer’s deal from 25 years ago to the nine-figure deals that are prevalent in today’s NBA. The deal that was made by Fox for the Tuohy’s and Michael Oher’s life rights was consistent with the marketplace at that time for the rights of relatively unknown individuals. Therefore, it did not include significant payouts in the event of the film’s success.
As a result, the notion that the Tuohys were paid millions of dollars by Alcon to the detriment of Michael Oher is false. In fact, Alcon has paid approximately $767,000 to the talent agency that represents the Tuohy family and Michael Oher (who, presumably, took commission before passing it through).
We anticipate that the Tuohy family and Michael Oher will receive additional profits as audiences continue to enjoy this true story in the years to come. In addition to these contractual payments, Alcon made a charitable contribution to the Tuohy family foundation. We offered to donate an equal amount to a charity of Mr. Oher’s choosing, which he declined.
In November, it will be 14 years since THE BLIND SIDE was released by our distribution partner, Warner Bros. Looking back, the two of us passionately believed that THE BLIND SIDE was a story that should be told. John Lee Hancock had done a brilliant job adapting Michael Lewis’ book and we knew John Lee would direct a thoughtful and uplifting film. Furthermore, we believed that the amazing Sandra Bullock’s work as a dramatic actress was underappreciated, and we thought Quentin Aaron’s screen test was a revelation.
Goodness knows, the two of us are hardly correct all the time, but we sure were right about our decision to make this film. The best human characteristics displayed in THE BLIND SIDE might be easy to dismiss in the bizarro world of elitist film critique and social media cynicism.
However, in the real world, they form the basis of a healthy society and they ought to be celebrated. We are as proud of the film today as we were when our amazing collaborators made the movie 14 years ago. We hope our fellow filmmakers all over the world will continue to look for uplifting stories to tell, and have the freedom and empowerment to have their voices heard.
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