Author Of 'The Blind Side' Places The Blame In One Direction
Author of 'The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game' Michael Lewis attends the "The Blind Side" benefit premiere at the Prytania Theatre on November 19, 2009 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The Blind Side author responded to Michael Oher's petition against the Tuohy family alleging they deceived him from profiting off the movie.
Oher filed a lawsuit claiming he saw no money from the 2009 film about his life story. Meanwhile, the petition claimed the Tuohy children each received $225,000 and 2.5 percent of the net proceeds from a movie that grossed $300 million.
But in an interview with The Washington Post, Michael Lewis claimed none of them made nearly as much.
"Everybody should be mad at the Hollywood studio system," Lewis said. "Michael Oher should join the writers’ strike. It’s outrageous how Hollywood accounting works, but the money is not in the Tuohys’ pockets."
Lewis, a longtime friend of Sean Tuohy, said he and the family each received $350,000 from the movie's proceeds. He stated the Tuohys intended to divide their share evenly among everyone, Oher included, but the former NFL offensive lineman began refusing payments.
He thinks they instead put Oher's cut into a trust fund for his son.
"What I feel really sad about is I watched the whole thing up close," Lewis said. "They showered him with resources and love. That he’s suspicious of them is breathtaking. The state of mind one has to be in to do that — I feel sad for him."
Oher claimed the Tuohy family tricked him into making them his conservators when he thought they were adopting him. A family attorney accused Oher of making "outrageous" allegations in a "shakedown effort."
