Michael Oher says he was never adopted, tricked into conservatorship

[quote] "I'm not trying to prove anything," Oher said via ESPN's David Newton. "People look at me, and they take things away from me because of a movie. They don't really see the skills and the kind of player I am. That's why I get downgraded so much, because of something off the field."

His most recent book, "When Your Back's Against the Wall," was released last week. In it, he explored the paradox the film created in his life.

[quote] "There has been so much created from The Blind Side that I am grateful for, which is why you might find it as a shock that the experience surrounding the story has also been a large source of some of my deepest hurt and pain over the past 14 years," he wrote. "Beyond the details of the deal, the politics, and the money behind the book and movie, it was the principle of the choices some people made that cut me the deepest."

Oher has his own foundation, which aims to empower disadvantaged youth by providing them with opportunities through higher education, mentorship, and healthy living. Earlier this month, he emphasized the charity will help kids "whether they play football or not."

The Blind Side is "white savior" crap

If you're taking back Sandy's Oscar, then I want it.

I deserve it, anyway.

Eat shit, Sandra!

I knew that move was bullshit. Never watched it. Never thought about watching it. Had too much of the “white liberal teacher savior” nonsense.

Hope he gets his fair share from the traffickers.

He ate us out of house and home!

As usual, the true story is much more interesting than the formulaic, sentimental sobfest churned out by hacks.

This is interesting.

I would love to know who is telling the truth.

I guess the lawsuit will figure that out.

I believe him. This story was always dubious at best.

The movie was "made for t.v." quality and produced one of the most undeserved Oscar wins in recent history.

I have never seen this movie before. Is it good or bad?

Sandy's Oscar win wasn't really for the Blind Side. It was for all of the shitty, low-ish budget movies she's churned out over the years that made lots and lots of money for TPTB. She's also made plenty of friends in Hollywood over the years, they voted for her.

Most Oscars are cumulative and popularity off-screen based, Bullock's was no exception.

I totally believe him. I remember seeing the real lady on something and she was so obviously full of shlt.

[quote]I would love to know who is telling the truth.

At first blush, he doesn't seem to have much motive to lie. He did well for himself in the NFL and has had a steady personal life. What he's seeking with this suit is reasonable given the sums (and alleged deception) involved.

The family aren’t liberals. That’s probably why they came off as Lord and Lady Bountiful. I never cared much for the whole story. And is he low IQ? Conservatorship sounds weird.

R9 in what world is Marisa Tomei forgotten?

R14 he isn’t low iq, which was part of his issue with the family.

From an article

R14 correct. They are Republicans and always have been.

What complete pieces of s*** those people are. I wish he could take them for every single dime they made off of him and more.

I don't understand how the guardians and their children were all paid but Michael Oher wasn't. WTF is up with that? Even their kids made money off of him?

I wish Atlanta was still on. Donald Glover could make a helluva standalone episode about that pack of Ole Miss grifters.

Wow.

That statement at R17 is incredible.

The Tuohy family really are scum.

Even if it was a complete lie, I have to admit I really enjoyed the film.

The family was already rich when the movie came out. The father sold his businesses for 200 million. So they didn’t have to screw him to be rich. The truth will come out in the lawsuits but I’m not picking sides yet.

[...]

You mean it wasn't cursed when she fucked and married that Nazi guy?

correction: Given the many rumors about Sandy, she may not have actually fucked the Nazi guy. She did marry him.

Sandra Bullock married a Nazi??

Where was I when this happened?

Literally nothing about Sandra is cursed lmao. Her career never was hurt from any of the Jesse James shit and this has nothing to do with her. It’s coming out years after she won.

Never mind.

You meant Jesse James was the Nazi, not the guy who just died.

Now I remember.

[...]

So, uh, he was their slave? That probably isn't legal.

Leigh Anne Tuohy's Wiki page said that the family adopted Oher.

Oh they were already rich, r24? Oh then they couldn't be guilty of anything.

No matter how they spell it, people named “Leigh Ann” are always cunts.

R24. I know you wish you could delete that post. You clearly were not thinking.

Sean Tuohy owned 80 Taco Bell franchises so as mentioned above they weren’t broke. So he’s still in a conservatorship after all these years and didn’t find out until recently he wasn’t adopted into the family? But the 2 kids who were a minor part of the movie got a 2.5% the movies profits along with a payment upfront, that seems excessive for 2 minor characters of the story . Oher resented that the was portrayed as not knowledgeable about football and a bit of a dullard.

Part of the reason the movie was such a smash was that it opened the same weekend as avatar and a lot of the crowd was people who weren’t able to get a ticket to avatar. The movie got wonderful word of mouth and the box office actually kept building not to mention a rare A+ CinemaScope audience score.

[quote]The family was already rich when the movie came out. The father sold his businesses for 200 million. So they didn’t have to screw him to be rich. The truth will come out in the lawsuits but I’m not picking sides yet.

Exactly.

Frankly, Oher seems like those black grifters that have come out in full force post-2020, with the help of guilt-ridden, self-loathing white 'progressives.'

Colin Kaepernik is another one who recently turned against his white adoptive parents, even calling them racist.

The documentary on this will be called "Blindsided"

Also, the Tuohy's make easy targets for the 'woke' Left, because they are Republicans.

By the time the book came out he was an adult. Maybe he did get screwed financially by them but he waited a long time to bring this lawsuit. He may have a strong case but I’ll wait till more info comes out.

Did Vlad send all the troll farmers to die in Ukraine or are we just infested with morons?

Has Vlad uses his troll army to post about Sandra Bullock films. Maybe you”re the moron.

R38. White racists are not going to love you because you agree with their racism against blacks. At the end of the day, they still think you should be cutting their grass.

Reminds me of the Latinos complaining about the Venezuelans migrants coming into New York. Look in the mirror and stfu.

And the winner is...

Why did everyone lie including the "adoptive" parents and Michael Oher himself?

[quote] Doesn't matter what it was for, because from today on, "ACADEMY AWARD® Winner Sandra Bullock" will only remind everyone of the thundercunt she helped to glorify, and the role she played in the exploitation of Michael Oher. That Oscar is cursed now.

I seriously doubt it.

All kinds of works purported to be non-fiction were later found to be fabrications--probably the most obvious to my mind being the movie "Julia," which is supposed to tell real events from a memoir of Lillian Hellman that were later found to have been made up. But Vanessa Redgrave's Oscar win was not cheapened by that revelation (although it was by her infamous acceptance speech).

He was already a great football player and this husband and wife only took him in so that he would go to college at their college alma mater. Other people helped him too. If he wasn't a great athlete, they wouldn't have helped him.

The whole sappy movie was a lie. And Sandra was a giant HAM in the movie.

R24 R37 The Kardashians were rich too.

The Tuohys got an Oscar winning movie about them, a book deal, and she even did reality TV.

Them being already rich is irrelevant.

I hate that fucking movie. I felt like it was such crap.

"They said the only way Michael could go to Ole Miss was if he was actually part of the family," Sean said. "I sat Michael down and told him, ‘If you're planning to go to Ole Miss—or even considering Ole Miss—we think you have to be part of the family. This would do that, legally.' We contacted lawyers who had told us that we couldn't adopt over the age of 18; the only thing we could do was to have a conservatorship."

So the father, who says Michael is lying, admits it was a conservatorship.

The film and story never set well with me. Now I know why.

He also said in the article that he would be willing to end the conservatorship.

So Michael is telling the truth about it not being an adoption.

So you naysayers can spin that now.

Why would an 18 year old need to be adopted / under conservatorship to go to a university?

I never trusted that Sandra Bullock

Sean Tuohy Jr. responded to allegations that his parents faked his brother Michael Oher’s adoption for financial gain

Sean Tuohy Jr., the son of the family featured in the 2009 film The Blind Side, spoke out Monday after former NFL star and the film's subject Michael Oher alleged in a court filing that the Tuohy family never legally adopted him, and instead profited millions by publicizing a falsified version of his life story.

“I completely understand,” Tuohy Jr. said in an interview with Barstool Sports when asked about why Michael Oher is upset. But he vigorously rebutted Oher’s allegation that he and his family made “$2 million” off the film.

“Man, if I had $2 million in my bank account, it would be in my email signature and say, ‘Signed, SJ Tuohy, multi-millionaire,’ ” said Tuohy, adding that friends were sending him links to articles and “roasting” him in a group chat.

“Somebody clearly is making a ton of the money off that movie, and he’s not seeing any of it — listen, if someone made a movie that I thought was about me, and I see it sold $300 million [at the] box office and I don’t see anything, I could see how that would upset me,” Dave Portnoy, the founder and owner of the popular sports blog, said during the discussion.

The film is based on a 2006 book of the same name which told the Tuohys’ story of how the family took in Oher, 37, at a time when he was struggling with homelessness, then adopted him and helped him through high school, college and his eventual NFL career.

Oher alleges in his petition, obtained by PEOPLE, that Tuohy Jr.'s parents, Leigh Anne and Sean, lied about adopting him and instead had Oher unwittingly sign legal papers that made them his conservators.

“Michael trusted the Tuohys and signed where they told him to sign,” the petition alleged of the 2004 deal. “What he signed, however, and unknown to Michael until after February 2023, were not adoption papers, or the equivalent of adoption papers.”

Tuohy Jr. asserted that the main reason he chose to do the interview with Barstool Sports was because he read reports claiming his family made “$2 million” from the movie and says that the stories were inaccurate.

“I get it, why he’s mad. I completely understand,” Tuohy Jr. continued. “It stinks that it’ll play out on a very public stage,” he added of the high-profile story.

At the time of what he believed to be an adoption, Oher had “no known physical or psychological disabilities” that would require him to be subjected to a conservatorship, according to his petition.

Almost 20 years later, Leigh Anne and Sean still “have all powers of attorney to act on” the former Baltimore Ravens star’s behalf, according to the legal petition. The conservatorship papers, signed in 2004, say Oher “shall not be allowed to enter into any contracts or bind himself without the direct approval of his conservators.”

The inspiring story of the impoverished high school athlete who came from a family of 12, had a mother who was battling addiction, being adopted and going on to play for the NFL earned Sandra Bullock the Oscar for Best Actress for her portrayal of Leigh Anne at the 82nd Academy Awards.

“Where other parents of Michael’s classmates saw Michael simply as a nice kid in need, Conservators Sean Tuohy and Leigh Anne Tuohy saw something else: a gullible young man whose athletic talent could be exploited for their own benefit,” the petition alleges.

[quote]Sean Tuohy Jr. responded to allegations that his parents faked his brother Michael Oher’s adoption for financial gain

The media should try framing this correctly. Oher is asking for a full accounting and his share of the profits since there wasn't financial transparency, but he knows this was about a lot more than money. In his own words, "Beyond the details of the deal, the politics, and the money behind the book and movie, it was the principle of the choices some people made that cut me the deepest."

Whether or not the parents cut a deal with the studio should be easily verified in the discovery phase. It should also be easy to verify whether Oher was receiving money from the studio or the Touhys. It sounds like they may have not only signed the contract on his behalf, but left the minor children in the dark, pocketing the money for themselves. Who knows what they were up to. Maybe they had financial problems and cash flow issues.

I think the son's interview may have complicated the case for his parents.

What was the basis of the conservatorship? Reduced Cognitive Functioning? Mental illness? Health? Wouldn’t these diagnoses need medical documentation for a judge to sign off on the conservatorship?

Were teachers/coaches/friends interviewed when the movie became a hit? Did they comment on the inaccurate depiction of Oher?

With the media attention Britney’s conservatorship received, I’m surprised this didn’t come to light sooner.

I’d want out of this conservatorship too. I feel for the guy.

I don't know about the law in their jurisdiction, but you most certainly adopt someone over the age of 18 in most states. Someone's lying about it having to be a conservatorship.

*can adopt

I wonder if they've abused the conservatorship in other ways. I'm guessing yes

Rich, white Southern couple take advantage of and exploit a poor, young black man?

This is not a good look for the Tuohy's.

I hope that Oher wins this suit.

Here's a legal perspective. Too many unanswered questions

Victoria Haneman @TaxLawProf Because of my expertise re: #conservatorships, I am being asked to comment on the lawsuit filed by “The Blind Side” ex-NFLer Michael Oher against the Tuohy family, so here we go, a 🧵

Oher claims that he was never “adopted” by the Tuohys (as they have inferred or claimed),

1/8

Okay so I know that I don’t have to see this claptrap then…

I still can't believe that in twenty years - and a career in the NFL, with agents, managers, and accountants looking over things - no one told him about this conservatorship.

It never occurred to him that he never filed a tax return, signed a check, signed a lease or mortgage, bought a car, etc.? How illiterate at life is this clown?

Or did these leeches insist on sitting with him for every financial discussion, and reach over to sign for him? He never found that unusual, even though he's nearing 40 and a millionaire in his own right?

[quote]How illiterate at life is this clown?

The details of the conservatorship aren't clear but appear to have only covered finances relating to "The Blind Side," which became a cottage industry for his fake adopters. Oher's NFL earnings (totaling millions) were his own.

Here's an article that raises questions about the legality of the business contracts Oher signed while under conservatorship. Experts also weigh in on how bizarre the scheme was from the start.

It doesn't seem that the Touhys interfered in other aspects of his life, such as his NFL career or marriage (to his college sweetheart, with whom he has raised a family). They wanted ownership of the story, which brings us to this:

[quote]And one person who will now be facing some heat is Michael Lewis, the renowned author. Lewis apparently gave the Tuohy family half of his share from the movie, Tuohy Jr. said. Lewis and Sean Tuohy Sr. were high school classmates and appeared together in March 2023 at the New Orleans Book Festival.

[quote]"It doesn’t look great for Michael Lewis," Soltman said, "given his relationship with the Tuohys."

Even in 2009, the White Savior theme of the movie was offensive.

I agree r69 Laverne Cox and Billy Porter should’ve been the parents and Elliot could’ve played Oher.

Awful- the family money has nothing to do with any of it.

[quote] Tuohys call Michael Oher's filing 'hurtful' and part of a shakedown attempt

Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy are calling Michael Oher's claims that they enriched themselves at his expense “outlandish," “hurtful and absurd" and part of a “shakedown” by the former NFL offensive tackle, whose relationship with the family was the inspiration for the movie “The Blind Side."

In the statement first issued Tuesday by attorney Martin Singer to TMZ.com and later obtained by The Associated Press, Singer said the Tuohys are heartbroken and accused Oher of threatening to plant a negative story about them unless they paid him $15 million.

Singer said the Tuohys hope Oher regrets his recent decisions and that they can reconcile.

“In the meantime, however, they will not hesitate to defend their good names, stand up to this shakedown and defeat this offensive lawsuit,” the statement says.

Oher filed a petition Monday in Shelby County Probate Court asking a judge to terminate a conservatorship initiated by the Tuohys in 2004 — months after he turned 18.

“Oher discovered this lie to his chagrin and embarrassment in February of 2023, when he learned that the Conservatorship to which he consented on the basis that doing so would make him a member of the Tuohy family, in fact provided him no familial relationship with the Tuohys,” according to his petition.

He moved in with the Tuohys just before his senior year of high school and later attended Sean Tuohy’s alma mater, Mississippi. Oher asks for a full accounting of his assets considering his life story produced millions of dollars and he says he received nothing.

Oher, who has never been a fan of the movie about his life, also asks in the petition that the Tuohys be sanctioned and required to pay both compensatory and punitive damages determined by the court.

The Tuohy family statement says the idea that they sought to profit off Oher is “not only offensive, it is transparently ridiculous.” The statement notes the Tuohys are worth “hundreds of millions of dollars" and the notion they would “connive to withhold a few thousand dollars” defies belief.

“They have consistently treated him like a son and one of their three children,” Singer said in the statement. “His response was to threaten them, including saying that he would plant a negative story about them in the press unless they paid him $15 million.”

The statement says agents negotiated a small advance from the production company for the Oscar-nominated movie “The Blind Side,” which was based on the book written by Sean Tuohy's friend Michael Lewis. That included “a tiny percentage of net profits” divided equally with the Tuohys making "good on that pledge.”

Singer notes evidence exists in profit participation checks and studio accounting statements for the movie that won Sandra Bullock an Oscar for her portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuohy.

When Oher refused to cash what the statement calls “small profit checks" as part of his "shakedown effort," the statement says the Tuohys deposited Oher's share into a trust account set up for his son.

The Tuohys insist they received “not one penny” as Oher's conservators and set it up only to help him with health insurance, a driver's license and being admitted to college. The statement says the Tuohys will not oppose Oher's wish to end their conservatorship.

Singer said in the statement that Oher has tried this “several times before" only to have attorneys stop representing him once they learned the truth. The statement called this a “cynical attempt” as part of Oher's latest book tour.

Oher was the 23rd overall pick in the 2009 draft out of Mississippi, and he spent his first five seasons with the Baltimore Ravens where he won a Super Bowl. He played 110 games over eight NFL seasons, including 2014 when he started 11 games for the Tennessee Titans. Oher finished his career with two years in Carolina.

He last played in 2016 and was released in 2017 by Carolina.

Not buying the Tuohy's weak-ass defense for one minute.

Why would the other Tuohy children ever receive even one penny of Oher's movie money? Why would the adult Tuohy's have a conservatorship over him still to this day? Why wasn't that ended when he graduated, if getting him into college was the reason for it?

I hope he takes them for everything they stole or manipulated out of him.

“It is my intention to make no provision herein for my “son” Michael Oher for reasons which are well known to him.”

My understanding from upthread is the money the Tuohys received from the movie was given to them by Blind Side author and friend Michael Lewis. Lewis received this cash from his (Lewis’) negotiated advance and “tiny percentage of the net profits of the film.” Lewis gave 50% of his share to the Tuohys which the Tuohys claim they split equally among themselves + Michael Oher. Michael Oher allegedly refused to cash the checks. This is what I’ve gleaned so far but I could be mistaken.

Agree that Michael Oher should end the conservatorship. Would be interested in finding out if it’s true that the Tuohys could not adopt Michael because he was 18 ( I am not sure in what state this happened.)

Has Sandra Bullock commented?

I turned down this piece of shit and left that dyke my scraps yet again for good reason. It was barely a Hallmark movie much less a Lifetime one.

R77 You still won your Oscar for playing a hooker who fucked an ambulance-chaser and made a career out of it. And you haven’t had a hit in twenty years.

Adult adoption is legal in Tennessee. Someone is full of shit.

In 20:years he never knew he was under a conservatorship. He never released they were screwing him about movie profits until this year. In the meantime he made millions from football, speaking engagements etc. The truth will come out but why assume so quickly he’s the good guy. Maybe both sides have things to hide.

[QUOTE]In 20:years he never knew he was under a conservatorship.

As a 17/18 year old he put his signature on a document he did not understand without having a Guardian ad Litum or attorney representing his interests in the matter? The Touhys were totally in charge of that exchange.

[QUOTE]Maybe both sides have things to hide.

What would he have to hide if he's filing a civil suit and is asking for discovery? Did you even think before posting? Discovery is a two way process. All of his contracts will be open for assessment, as will the entire Touhy family's contracts, bank accounts, and profits for the years in dispute. These are contractual matters with parties filing legal motions.

More importantly, r80, you should tell us, under these circumstances, why/what you believe the plaintiff, with the burden of proof, is hiding something? You must be smart enough to try out some of these mental gymnastics out elsewhere without getting a gasoline fired here on DL.

Precious >>>>>>> The Blind Side

R82 I would have thought the answers to your questions would be obvious. Who has the most melanin in this situation?

Say it loud and again, r84.

I always tried to adopt my boys.

[quote] Sandy's Oscar win wasn't really for the Blind Side. It was for all of the shitty, low-ish budget movies she's churned out over the years that made lots and lots of money for TPTB. She's also made plenty of friends in Hollywood over the years, they voted for her. Most Oscars are cumulative and popularity off-screen based, Bullock's was no exception.

It was a weak year. Meryl Streep "Julie & Julia", Helen Mirren "The Last Station", Carey Mulligan "An Education" and her only real competition, Gabourey Sidibe "Precious".

She did deserve it a few years later with "Gravity" which is basically a one woman show.

The conservatorship was a shady move, no argument there. Definitely agree Oher should be removed from the conservatorship and have all of the paperwork/contracts that the Tuohys signed examined.

Here is my question: what additional film profits are due to Oher, or what does he feel he did not receive? The book and film are about the family and Oher, it’s not just his story. Michael Lewis is a friend of Tuohy Sr., that is how this story came into the hands of the best-selling/household name author. Michael Lewis gave 50% of his proceeds from the film to the Tuohy family who allegedly split it equally among themselves + Michael Oher (allegedly Michael Oher refused to cash the checks.) To me it sounds like the Tuohys received no direct profits from the film except for what Lewis gave them as a gesture of thanks for their cooperation. Oher is certainly free to find a famous author to write his version of the story and have it optioned for a film.

I’m interested to know what his relationship has been like with the family for the past 20 years. Have they continued to treat him as family? Does he visit them at holidays? Do they send each other cards and gifts?

How much did the family make from The Blind Side? Did they ever gain anything monetarily from having the conservatorship? If Oher was unaware of a conservatorship did the conservatorship serve any function?

Should Sandra return her Oscar?

^ No. It was a stupid movie but it’s not her fault this lawsuit has materialized. Actors rely on their agents to vet projects for them.

The only ones demanding she return the Oscar are racist Black broads on Twitter, who rant about interracial adoptions being “mass trauma.”

Cunts, in other words

Hi Sandra/R92!

The conservatorship is shady AF

I was thinking along those lines r88

I don't think Other has done anything shady. In fact I would describe the lawsuit as overt. It is all going to come down to the numbers.

I'm just not interested enough to dig into it, but what piece of the pie did Oher receive?

6 years in the NFL as a lineman isn't exactly island buying money. He is looking for punitive damages. Those would extend beyond whatever is decided about his fair share of the movie profits he is entitled to.

The movie was corny, but I think it portrayed the the arrangement quite apparently. Not that they were benevolent angels. But rather they were football crazy rednecks who wanted to groom a promising player to play for their college.

I loved the "football Saturday" scene where they had one of those old school crt TVs in the great room next to the flat screen so they could watch multiple games simultaneously while they ate on the couch.

But at any rate, they did manipulate him to some degree and he is attempting to return the favor.

R95 If they had legally adopted him, he'd be entitled to inherit family money (depending on their wills), and could readily dispute a will in court. Under conservatorship, he's not legally family or an heir to their fortune, but they hold legal authority over his money. It's a one-way street.

I'd wager they wanted the benefits of a famous athlete in the family (and his money), but certainly never wanted to adopt a BLACK BOY into their family.

And these people didn't get rich by curing cancer. They made their money on crooked fast food franchises, selling lousy food to fatties and paying their workforce of immigrants and teenagers the absolute minimum they could.

It's also especially shitty that ALL FOUR Tuohy family members - both parents and their two biological kids - received cash payments and a percentage of the backend from that movie.

Michael Oher didn't receive SHIT.

Hell, Kathy Bates made more money off of that movie than the kid on whom the story was based.

Oh, I get it r96

I didn't say that it was right. I was only talking about motivation. I think the film was a profitable byproduct of the arrangement and the boy should share equally in it.

But I don't think they pursued him thinking there was a movie check coming in.

😬

R98, I think they pursued him thinking that they were getting a great football player for Ol' Miss, which they got.

The money their entire family made off of him was just a little extra bonus.

Gifted in the south is a dubious term.

R92 is a cunt conservative who wants to rant about black people

Why did they lie about the adoption?

R103

Because they didn't want to give him rights to their fortune, but they did want to have the ability to do things on his behalf.

The problem here is that everyone is looking at this through the prism of the movie. He should absolutely get a proper cut from the movie proceeds that the family received. I haven't seen where they got access to his NFL paychecks.

Here is the twist. He is portraying himself as the victimized retard you might imagine in the movie AND complaining that he was misrepresented.

I think somebody talked him into this.

IIRC, the Touhy's did not have access to Oher's NFL money.

His movie money was all they could get their hands on.

R104, he isn't portraying himself as a "victimized retard" and who over the age of 12 uses "retard" as an insult?

what took him so long to figure it out?

R106

I was throwing you a bone.

Was it tasty?

Does anyone have a link neither from Oher/attorneys, nor the Tuohys/attorneys that describes the profit the Tuohys received from the film? I was not able to find the information but my search skills may not be the greatest.

Ooo do you think Sandra Bullock is up for doing a dark-sided sequel?

Oh good heavens, R106, you must be so new around here!

Perfectly reasonable, rational adults use "retarded" and "retard" and "'tard" at the Datalounge. These are all acceptable here, while they may not be in other, more pearl clutching venues. We understand that this will not be to everyone's taste. We take solace in the fact that those people have literally millions of other websites they can visit and enjoy!

Bon voyage, darling.

R104 is our resident trans loon. He hates women because he can’t be one and jerks off to the idea of raping and killing real while wearing a dress.

Hey what the fuck, R112? I thought that *I* was your resident Trans loon.

Actually, I'm not Trans and I don't think SouthernLib is either but no matter. Carry on Trans Hating and fucking up identifying long-term Dataloungers. You're just always going to be a fucking 'tard like that.

Another SouthernLibism referring to a 37 year old as "boy."

[QUOTE]I think the film was a profitable byproduct of the arrangement and the boy should share equally in it.

R104, you are not making sense. Just because he is adopted, does not automatically mean is entitled to their fortune. That’s nonsense. They could easily have disinherited him and left him nothing. Celebrities do it all the time.

Without knowing a lot of the facts and allegations, my spidey senses are feeling the guy has been getting ‘advice’ from a local evangelical minister or a rapper. I am willing to admit I could be 100% wrong, but something about this story makes me think their is another story behind this story. Time will tell.

[quote] They could easily have disinherited him and left him nothing. Celebrities do it all the time.

Yes they do, those children are disinherited for reasons which are well-known to them.

Oher referred to it as a conservatorship in his own book.

The passage at 118, if you glance at what's available even in the thumbnail image, goes along with what he is saying now, which is that the arrangement was misrepresented to him.

Team Oher.

Fuck those conservative college recruitment assholes who pretended to be his adoptive parents.

I still can't believe that they gave what should have been HIS money to their bio-kids. CUNTS!

The Oscar curse.

He's full of sheet!

Dammit they survived!

They didn’t take his money from the movie. The author Michael Lewis gave the family half of his share of the movie profits. that included 2.5% of the movie net which in Hollywood ain’t much. I don’t know if they got any share of his football money. I doubt it as they were very rich but who knows.

The film made $300 million not the family. Oher made plenty of money playing football so he shouldn’t be broke unless he is. I can see why he wants million from the family but they didn’t get rich off the movie or his story. They did it owning franchises..

[Quote] hey didn’t get rich off the movie or his story.

It was their story too R124

R121 In retrospect, that Oscar clip is so cringey and saccharine, it makes me want to hide under a chair if I hear it playing. They overplayed it.

It’s the Academy Awards for crying out loud, not a Nobel Peace Prize summit.

'The Blind Side' star Quinton Aaron says people need to 'chill out' amid calls for Sandra Bullock to relinquish her Oscar for the film

Sandra Bullocks's performance in the movie is its own thing It should be separated out from this sordid situation. That movie is not the problem here. She did nothing wrong. Sandra owes no one anything.

SMH trying to cancel an actor for being awarded for their work on a film that is tangentially related to a real-life situation that has been found years later to have some extra layers to it.

[quote] SMH trying to cancel an actor for being awarded for their work on a film that is tangentially related to a real-life situation that has been found years later to have some extra layers to it.

Exactly.

That would require critical thinking, which the majority of Woke people lack.

They're basically like villagers with pitchforks.

Cancel! Cancel! Cancel!!

[Quote] Sandra owes no one anything.

RU sure about that?

"That would require critical thinking, which the majority of Woke people lack."

Right-wingers who complain about wokeness are trying to cancel Bud Light for acknowledging that LGBT people exist. Studies show highly educated people tend to be liberal. Conservatives are people who weren't smart enough to get into college.

You can adopt an adult. Doris Duke, tobacco heiress, adopted a ~ 40-year-old woman. Doris tried to un-adopt her and could not. The court would not allow it. Doris then tried to disinherit the woman (Chandi Heffner), but Chandi contested the will and ended up with $65 million.

Surprised no one posted this

"Join us as we revisit the heartwarming story of 'The Blind Side' (2009), where a caring family takes in a homeless teen . . .

[quote]Right-wingers who complain about wokeness are trying to cancel Bud Light for acknowledging that LGBT people exist.

That would just be the T, r131

Leave the rest of us out of it.

[Quote] "That would require critical thinking, which the majority of Woke people lack."

Woke isn't about independent thinking; it's about repeating the dogma drilled into you.

Bradley Cooper just seems like an insufferable prick. And the more mushy-and-musical he tries to be, the worse it looks.

I doubt he has a violent temper, and I don't think he's on the cocaine or anything, I just think he's off the charts as a star-fucking narcissist who finally hit it big. He is today where Chris Pratt wants to be in another five years.

Remember his side part in "Nip/Tuck," where he played a sex-crazed, bigoted, prickish diva on the set of some stupid medical drama? That part really wasn't a stretch for him. Except I bet Cooper, unlike his character, probably can suck his own dick without hurting himself.

He’s lying for coins. Ungrateful cunt. His bio mammy and pappy chose drugs over him.

Michael has 3 books without the Tuohy family there'd be no story

The football star made famous in the hit film (and book) The Blind Side reflects on how far he has come from the circumstances of his youth. Michael Oher shares his personal account of his story, in this inspirational New York Times bestseller.

The family needed him, not the other way around. There would have been other benefactors for other schools that would have helped him along. He was a top prospect before the Tuohys entered the picture. ^^

I don't care about any of them. Why people are getting worked up at all over the squabbles between multi millionaires I don't understand.

R141 I’m not getting worked up but I don’t like opportunist. Bet money he realizes the error of his ways and apologizes.

[quote]He ate us out! —Leigh Anne Tuohy

Pics please.

Perhaps, R142, and perhaps the Tuoys will realize the error of their ways and apologize to Michael. I certainly hope that they can manage at least that much.

[Quote]He’s lying for coins. Ungrateful cunt. His bio mammy and pappy chose drugs over him.

which makes sense now

There’s something not trustworthy about such a dark man

R146 And there’s nothing more retarded than your post you low iq cunt. Probably an attention whore under the guise of racism. Have seats. Lawd.

Do you deny that’s what why posters on this thread trust the rich republicunts over this guy?

My pussy is so wet.

The Tuoys daughter (Collins) is a social media influencer.

Check out her Instagram

I'll pass, r150.

There are three things you can be sure of if your life is made into a successful movie.

1) They will get things wrong.

2) Way more people will see the movie than you’ll ever meet in real life.

3) All those people will assume the wrong things are right.

The people depicted in the hit film "The Blind Side" are finding this out the hard way.

The movie came out in 2009 and earned an Academy Award for Sandra Bullock, who played Leigh Anne Tuohy, a rich, strong-willed, suburban mother who, along with her successful husband, Sean, take in a homeless Black teenager who develops into a strong, talented football player.

Based on a true story — and the book written by celebrated author Michael Lewis — "The Blind Side" was, for years, one of those feel-good tales. Family opens home and heart to struggling youth, defies racism and criticism, sees the young man blossom and grow into a successful athlete.

In real life, Michael Oher, the young man, actually went on to play in college and the NFL and even win a Super Bowl. He and the Touhys seemed part of a big happy family.

And the film earned a ton of money, reportedly over $300 million.

So, for a long time, it seemed like a win-win for everyone. The Tuohys were hailed for their faith and traveled around the country speaking about the experience. Oher earned big money in the NFL and even wrote his own book, in 2011, called "I Beat the Odds."

And then, last week, it all came apart.

Wait for the facts First came an announcement by Oher — or more accurately, lawyers for Oher — which claimed that the Tuohys had lied for years about adopting him, and actually just placed him in a conservatorship so they could reap millions from his story. Oher, who said he only found out about this in February, filed a petition seeking an end to that conservatorship and damages to compensate him.

Because this was the first salvo fired, and because many in the media don’t wait until all the facts come out, critics quickly jumped on the bandwagon. They lambasted the Tuohys, labeled them opportunists, and, not surprisingly, tinged some of their criticism with race.

The online magazine The Root wrote: "Whew, the jig is up! But to be honest, Black folk never cared for the film that much considering all the white characters in the movie serve as a positive influence to Michael, and nearly all of the Black characters serve as hindrances to him.

"Now it seems that that white family that 'saved' his life turned out to be his biggest enemies."

His biggest enemies? Considering no one disputes that the Tuohy family took Oher in and helped him considerably — long before any movies or books were in the works — "biggest enemies" is quite a jump.

But then came the Tuohy family’s response. Sean Touhy told a Memphis media outlet, "We're devastated. It's upsetting to think we would make money off any of our children."

The Tuohys not only disputed ever deceiving Oher, but claimed they didn’t make "millions" off the film, instead getting a relatively small advance and later a small share of net profits, which they split with family members, including Oher, equally.

In a counterclaim, the Tuohys' attorneys stated that Oher had recently tried to shake the family down for $15 million, threatening to expose a bad story about them if they didn’t comply.

They also stated that they have no problem ending the conservatorship, which they said was only done to allow Oher to attend the University of Mississippi without Oher being accused of violating NCAA rules by the family supporting him.

The only reason they didn’t formally adopt him, they said, was because he was already 18 and too old.

In other words, they had a counter for every one of Oher’s charges.

And the criticism started flying in the other direction.

A change in tone People wondered why Oher, at age 37, was only now leveling these criticisms. Could it be timed to promote his new book, which just came out this month?

Could it be that, having finished his NFL career seven years ago, he somehow needed money?

Jason Whitlock, who used to cover sports in the Detroit area and now has his own program on BlazeTV, called what Oher was doing to the Tuohy family “despicable.”

“He’s telling an obvious lie he knows most of the media will be too afraid to question because he’s Black,” Whitlock said on his show.

Whitlock, who is also Black, pointed out that in Oher’s previous book, written 12 years ago, he acknowledged the conservatorship.

"Since I was already over the age of eighteen and considered an adult by the state of Tennessee, Sean and Leigh Anne would be named as my 'legal conservators.' They explained to me that it means pretty much the exact same thing as 'adoptive parents,' but that the laws were just written in a way that took my age into account. Honestly, I didn't care what it was called. I was just happy that no one could argue that we weren't legally what we already knew was real: We were a family.”

Wow, has his tone changed.

But then, as if this story couldn’t get more bizarre, social media trolls began weighing in. Even though this is hardly the first time a movie didn’t exactly match the facts, they began attacking Sandra Bullock, claiming she should return the Oscar she won for the film.

Yeah. OK.

What we know Look. Anytime outsiders try to weigh in on a family battle, they will largely be swinging wildly. That’s because nobody from the outside was there, and the nuances of family dynamics don’t tuck easily into lawsuits. What people said, what they meant, how they felt, what they promised, sounds much different in conversation around a dinner table than in legal briefs.

What we do know is this:

The family didn’t earn “millions” from the film. The real subjects never do. When a movie is made based on a book, studios normally pay a rights fee, to the subjects or to an author — in this case, according to Lewis, it was $250,000, which he said he split with the Tuohys and which they claim they split with Oher.

Other income from “net” profits is almost never seen, but because “The Blind Side” did so well, some money eventually came in. Again, it wasn’t millions.

Michael Oher played in the NFL for eight seasons and reportedly earned over $34 million in salary alone. So he was hardly poor. Few media outlets bothered to report this, suggesting that Oher somehow struggled while the Tuohys lived lavishly off his story. Why leave this detail out?

The Tuohys were already rich before "The Blind Side," and Sean Tuohy reportedly sold his fast food company for more than $200 million. “The last thing I needed was 40 grand from a movie,” he told the media.

The Tuohys actually could have adopted Oher even though he was 18, as long as certain rules were followed. And it’s true they have suggested for years that he was adopted — or at least didn’t correct others when they assumed that. Why the Touhys didn’t dissolve the conservatorship before now is yet unanswered.

Both the Tuohys and Oher have benefited from the movie, no matter how accurate or inaccurate it is. Oher became famous, and it’s doubtful a publisher would have offered an offensive lineman a book deal if not for the film. Meanwhile, the Tuohys have traveled and spoken extensively because of the story and their perception as sharing, loving people.

Something clearly has changed in the Tuohy-Oher dynamic.

Other than that, the outside world doesn’t know anything — beyond the fact that the two sides disagree.

But that hasn’t stopped media from puffing up righteously, leveling charges from “white saviorism” to shakedowns. The New York Times actually had a columnist watch the movie for the first time and offer a scathing take. Now he watches the movie?

Having been the subject of a couple of films myself, I can tell you this much: thinking you know someone’s full story from a two-hour dramatization is foolish. And trying to judge dynamics between real people whom you’ve only seen portrayed by actors is really, truly, the definition of a blind side.

I wonder if Oher’s wife plays any part in this. Did she get along with the “in laws”? Partners and spouses have a lot of influence and sometimes power in a relationship. What’s her story?

Mitch Albom's column (R152-154) is instructive reading to all those who seem to reflexively believe Oher.

R152 How could they have placed him in a conservatorship if not his legal guardians. Do people think before they post nowadays.

r155 = stealth BRF post

R155 9 times outta ten that is the culprit. We shall see.

[R158], what is BRF?

Regardless of whatever else the Toey's may say, I can't find any reason for their biological children to have financial participation in the film about their "adoptive brother" it makes no sense.

I'd love to know how Michael Richards would react to this revelation!

R162 That ol drunk. Hopefully he wouldn’t get pieced up by calling this misguided black king out his name.

Agree r161

I'm wondering how wealthy Oher is now after being retired from the NFL. If the $34 million in NFL money mentioned in a post above is correct - to most normal people - that is a LOT of money. Plenty to live off for the rest of a person's life as well as any immediate family (wife and/or children).

If the Tuohy family was indeed very wealthy before Oher ever entered the picture, it just does not make sense that their legal doings (conservatorship) would have been focused, presumably before his football success, the book, movie, the Oscar, etc. on some possible great financial bonanza. Doesn't make sense.

As to the posters up thread who provide insight into the question of who actually profited and for how much from the movie. Since Lewis wrote the book, which led to the movie, and it was Lewis who was paid, it would need to be proved that the Tuohy family received some substantial money that they hid from Oher.

To me, the Tuohy's already known wealth before meeting Oher, together with the apparent portion (if true) from the relatively small amount paid to the author for the movie , causes me to question Oher's case.

The conservatorship should be terminated. But again, does this mean that all of Oher's legal connections since he was 18 were handled by the Tuohys? Why did it take Oher so long to question all this. Did the Tuohy's profit from his NFL money in any way?

So, again, the game is the same. If Oher's $34 million is gone, this suit could have the appearance of an attempt to force money from the Tuohy family.

If Oher is financially secure (more than, with an invested $34 million) then the picture shifts.

If the Tuohy's received a much, much larger payout than reported, from the movie, the picture shifts.

Again - FOLLOW THE MONEY for both sides.

Follow the money.

Following the money leads to the piggybanks of the two biological children of the Tuoy's.

Put up all the defenses you want, there's no defense for that scam.

I never read the book and I never saw the movie. And I do not follow football. Whether college football or the NFL.

It's all stupid IMO.

Grown men crashing into each other giving each other Brain Damage and Early Dementia.

While thousands cheer or jeer and millions watch.

Stupid.

But big money.

Having not seen the movie, nor knowing the details, did the characters of the Tuohy children play any role in the story or movie?

If not, then they getting any portion of whatever money came from Lewis, makes no sense.

If they (or the characters portraying them) were significant characters in the book, story, script, movie, etc., then a case can be made that they might receive a portion of the money from Lewis.

They would receive portions of the money from the book for their characters but Michael would not?

It makes no sense.

Did the Tuohy family profit in any way from Oher's own book?

If the conservatorship was still in place at that time, was all the legal business done with the publisher approved and/or run by the Tuohy's. Did they profit, if so?

If Oher owns a home, who handled the legalities of purchase?

Has the conservatorship impacted Oher since he became over 21? His NFL contracts, for example? Did the Tuohy's profit for any of that? Or not.

FOLLOW THE MONEY and the truth will come out.

Facts are sometimes ignored in favor of victimhood.

As Sgt Joe Friday used to say "Just the facts, Ma'am."

[quote] They would receive portions of the money from the book for their characters but Michael would not?

Not true.

Michael did, but refused the check which according to the story above, the Tuohys placed in a Trust Account for him.

Should be able to prove whether such an account exists, when it was opened, what deposits were made, how is it invested, etc.

Why would he refuse the money and why would the Touys open an account for it for him?

Still makes no sense.

The movie is a story about a family and their encounter with a young black teen. The children have some part to play in the story. The family share of the movie money was divided 5 ways. There was no other money to share although everyone has since profited from writing books, giving speeches etc.

Let the courts figure this one out. I don’t see Oher having a case since he got his share of the movie money. The family is very rich while Oher should be just rich (unless he blew through all his NFL $)

Author Michael Lewis is a shithead.

He’s not poo-pooing these claims… saying we already knew all this. Really, because Lewis portrayed this as an adoption… used that word repeatedly.

So Lewis was part of the lie.

I was molested

R165 please understand how college sports works, in the South. They were boosters! Their goal was not necessarily monetary—it was to direct top recruits to Ole Miss. They wanted to create a wining football team, and then bask in the reflected glory…that’s what wealthy, white alums do. It’s their side gig.

R172 No. Actually, the movie is a story about a young black teen and his encounter with a white family. FIFY

OK, R175. I'll take your word for it. It's not something I know anything about.

If what you say is true, how did/Oher lose out by the actions of the Tuohy?

There seems to be (from the article above) a difference of opinion about how the conservatorship was explained to Oher by the Tuohys. And how Oher understood the situation.

So, we have a he said/they said situation. If Oher believed he had been adopted and discovered otherwise (when did that happen? And how old was he when it did?) I can understand his hard feelings. And the sob story in the movie would be hard to accept if it offended him and was not true.

But the lawsuit is about money, isn't it?

Then the question that should be asked is how did the encounter and presence of the Tuohy family in Oher 's life change his life since his talent and skill at football is his alone. Would he have had the same NFL career if the Tuohy family had never met him?

No change from what would have been due to his talent?

His life is worse because of the encounter with the Tuohy family?

His life is better because of the encounter with the Tuohy family?

His life is worse because of his time with the Tuohy family. He believed they were a real family. He thought that they had really adopted him and loved him.

Now he understands that they used him. He was a promising football recruit for Ole Miss, that's all. Now he is disposable, not a family member or an adopted son/brother. I'm sure he is deeply hurt by the way this family has treated him.

R167 is a Mary.

If he knew it was a conservatorship in 2011, why didn't he try to end it back then?

After all, he's "very gifted."

But did he really know and understand that it was just a conservatorship and not at all an adoption? It seems as though he didn't truly understand that until he finally did and by then it was incredibly hurtful.

For the person who asked upthread, I do not believe that the Tuohys were a part of his NFL contracts. There is probably a better and more detailed explanation somewhere earlier in this thread.

R166 Why is it a scam? Michael Lewis gave the Tuohys 50% of his (Lewis’) advance/profits from the film. This amount was allegedly split 5 ways between LeAnn, Sean Sr., Sean Jr. , the sister, and Michael Oher. Sean Sr. could have kept all of that money himself if he so desired. The film was about the family, not just Oher. If it’s true that Oher received 20% of the take gifted by Michael Lewis there is nothing to see here.

I agree that the conservatorship is shady but if it’s true the family profited equally from the film, I don’t see what’s wrong with that.

It’s bad because if they were genuinely looking out for Michael then he would have received the entirety of the amount paid to the Tuohys. Duh.

I don't see why these people who allegedly "adopted" this kid would then accept money for a book about him joining their family. I don't know why his adoptive siblings and adoptive parents would want to profit off of that.

When Lewis tried to split the money five ways, the parents should have refused and made sure that all of the money went to Michael. The Tuohys already had plenty of money. There was no need for them to take Michael's money.

Oher wrote in his own book ten years ago that he wasn't actually adopted. If he's owed any money, the courts will help him out. I personally think he's run out of his NFL money and they're still rich. So...figure it out.

I think he was deeply hurt when he finally understood what the Tuohy's had done with the guardianship and that there was never any adoption. Whatever else has happened with his money, Oher still receives a great pension and bennies in retirement.

If I recall correctly from the bad old OJ days when we all learned about this stuff, he's getting at least $250,000 a year plus bennies.

He's not broke. He's pissed off.

Oher was already a legal adult when he joined the family. He wasn't a little kid. He had a living mother and around 12 siblings. The family helped him academically enter college and than enabled him to have his big NFL career.

He is obviously hurt now but he's asking for money not an invite to Thanksgiving. Nobody will look good when this is all done.

R183 The film is about the family, not just Oher. When the film came out, Oher was already an NFL player making bank. Neither Oher nor the family directly profited from the film. Michael Lewis profited from the film and gave 50% to the Tuohys which was allegedly divided among the 5 of them, including Oher. Oher allegedly refused to cash his checks and the Tuohys put his portion into a trust for Oher's son.

The Tuohys have made a whole career on the Michael Oher story. High priced speaking engagements, Instagram sponsorships and lord knows what else.

It’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out

R184 How is that Michael Oher's money? It was Michael Lewis' money which was then gifted to the Tuohys who allegedly split it 5 ways among themselves and Michael Oher. Michael Oher was already a millionaire himself when the film came out.

R188. Which of these is correct? 1. Without Michael’s story, they still would or could have made a box office smash about the Tuohy family story. OR. 2. Without the Tuohys, they still would or could have made a box office smash off of Michael’s story. 🧐

[quote]Without the Tuohys, they still would or could have made a box office smash off of Michael’s story.

His story is interesting only because these people took him in.

Now you’re just being dense.

Most people had no idea who this guy was before the book and/or the movie.

Yet the Tuohys were famous everywhere…yes, of course.

Go back and read the thread. Michael was a major college prospect before he ever met the Tuohys—

And just so you know: the book featured them both in a single section. The book itself was about the changing nature of position players in the game. It was the Billyball story of modern football. The particular example of Michael, and it was all about Michael’s unique abilities, became known only after an excerpt from the book was published as a magazine feature.

I think “adopted” was just an easy way of describing their themselves. To go to Ole Miss, he needed to have someone acting as a parent to agree to the school’s terms. Adopted sounds better that “conservatorship” which most people equate with mentally ill/handicapped/elderly/Britney Spears. “Our adopted som” vs this legal term.

It was their story as much as his. Then they did all those speaking engagements. Did he go around telling his feel-good story too? He’s written a couple books. Did he split the profits with them?

The Tuohys are gross opportunists and you could tell the movie was a whitewash from the beginning. They were portrayed as having zero ulterior motive in encouraging him to go to Ole Miss? Please. They bought themselves an NFL-quality player for their alma mater, which they just happened to be major boosters for. Then made millions off his story while cutting him out of the profits with a predatory conservatorship. Pure evil.

What proof that they made millions from the story? What profits did they cut him off from? If he has proof of that, he has a case.

He is certainly not entitled to any of the $200 million they made from their fast food franchises. Let the judge/jury figure it out.

R196 again—read the thread. You are mistaken—or intentionally acting obtuse. There is no reason at related to college recruitment that required the Tuohys’ action. There have been thousands of athletes from broken families, in foster care, with absent or imprisoned parents, etc., who made it into college and played NCAA sports without being subjected to the Tuohy method.

R198 please stop. You are writing stupidly on this topic.

As much as it pains me, I’m on Team Touhy in this kerfuffle. Mitch Albom, upthread, sure seems to be, as well.

Ok r199, I read that elsewhere. So an 18 year old can sign an agreement to play football for x university.

Of course he can. Or she.

Well if Michael was able to sign an agreement to go to Ole Miss himself, which apparently he was, what were the Tuohys doing with the conservatorship and fake adoption in the first place? WTF?

It was a voluntary conservatorship, he could have canceled anytime with 30 days notice.

That doesn't answer my question, R205. If Michael didn't need a conservatorship or an adoption to sign college entry papers at Ole Miss (and anywhere else), why did the Tuohys have such a thing in the first place? Why? Why did they do it?

I wasn’t answering your question. I was just pointing out he could’ve canceled it at anytime before now,

Also, Cary Mulligan should have won for An Education which was a really good film also based on a true story.

So the article quoted at R152 contains this...

[quote] ...an announcement by Oher — or more accurately, lawyers for Oher — which claimed that the Tuohys had lied for years about adopting him, and actually just placed him in a conservatorship so they could reap millions from his story.

So, he's claiming the family collected MILLIONS.

What millions is he referring to? Oher can't really think that the family got the $$$ from the Hollywood movie, can he? But it does sound as if he thinks that their only motive for connecting with him was for money. Since they were already wealthy, wouldn't they have to be omniscient that he would be worth millions to them in years to come?

Sounds very far fetched.

Okay, R207, well thanks? Carey Mulligan is very talented. I don't really care that Oher could have cancelled it nor whether he was aware of that fact. I want to know why it was set up in the first place. Why was Michael told that it was being set up in the first place?

There's a lot of "Oh it was just this" or "Oh he has his NFL money" and blahblahblah. None if it goes to the central and only meaningful question/issue. Why did the Tuohys set up a conservatorshipt to begin with? What was it intended to accomplish? What was Michael told about why the conservatorship was necessary? Oher was 18 and legally able to sign a contract with Ole Miss or any other college.

Why did the Tuohys create a conservatorship to begin with and what was Michael Oher's understanding of it?

^this^. All good questions.

Oher married his girlfriend and the mother of his 4 children after 17 years on November 5, 2022. The prenup would have brought up all these issues.

Interesting, R211, I wonder if that's what really did bring all this up?

Especially the fact that he's never been adopted. I wonder if his children treated the Tuohys like grandparents?

The lady in this TikTok video dug up some footage of the Tuohy family on Bravo's Below Deck.

Here's Sean Tuohy talking about how the movie originated.

[quote]Why did the Tuohys set up a conservatorshipt to begin with? What was it intended to accomplish? What was Michael told about why the conservatorship was necessary? Oher was 18 and legally able to sign a contract with Ole Miss or any other college.

The most damning thing here is that they could have legally adopted him at 18 with his consent in that state. Even Tuohys admitted they could have because they can't dispute that.

Oher claims the Tuohys told him the "conservatorship" was a necessary step for him towards him be adopted which they never bothered to do but they could have just adopted him without it. He wouldn't have known that back then.

There was no real reason for it other than the obvious.

[quote]When Lewis tried to split the money five ways, the parents should have refused and made sure that all of the money went to Michael. The Tuohys already had plenty of money. There was no need for them to take Michael's money.

Exactly. Since when has a rich person with money turned down even more money?

Also, as he said in the suit, it isn't just about the money - he wants them to stop talking about him and using his image period because while they didn't just (allegedly) make money from the movie, they definitely made money from public speaking.

Without him there is no movie.

.

he's another entitled, greedy ungrateful Colin Karperneck

I hope he is not paying for his lawyer, since he has someone representing him for free here on DL.

He wants reparations!

Stop now, bigot R215

Yeah, didn't you get the memo, r15? Black is always right.

Klan grannies all over…pathetic.

Ok, wokester.

Liberated from the white devils

R215 and r219 are probably racist Trump voters

“I cannot believe it got done”—the judge sounds low IQ

Is Reverend Al behind Michael’s fury?—that coat-tail grabbing troublemaker

Rich white rednecks who care that much about football?

Wondering if Michael Oher has/had slimy blood relations that came out of the woodwork trying to make a cash grab and the family placed Michael under conservatorship to protect him from that? I don't know -just offering this as possible scenario.

[quote] Judge says she is ending conservatorship between former NFL player Michael Oher and Memphis couple

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee judge said Friday she is ending a conservatorship agreement between former NFL player Michael Oher and a Memphis couple who took him in when he was in high school, but the highly-publicized dispute over financial issues will continue.

Shelby County Probate Court Judge Kathleen Gomes said she is terminating the agreement reached in 2004 that allowed Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy to control Oher’s finances. Oher signed the agreement when he was 18 and living with the couple as he was being recruited by colleges as a star high school football player. Their story is the subject of the film "The Blind Side, which earned Sandra Bullock an Oscar.

Gomes said she was not dismissing the case. Oher has asked that the Tuohys provide a financial accounting of money that may have come to them as part of the agreement, claiming that they used his name, image and likeness to enrich themselves and lied to him that the agreement meant the Tuohys were adopting him.

In Tennessee, a conservatorship removes power from a person to make decisions for themselves, and it is often used in the case of a medical condition or disability.

But Oher’s conservatorship was approved “despite the fact that he was over 18 years old and had no diagnosed physical or psychological disabilities,” his petition said.

Gomes said she was disturbed that such an agreement was ever reached. She said she had never seen in her 43-year career a conservatorship agreement reached with someone who was not disabled.

“I cannot believe it got done,” she said.

Oher and Tuohys listened in by video conference call but did not speak. Lawyers for both parties had agreed that the agreement should end, but the case will continue to address Oher's claims. Gomes said it should have ended long ago.

In August, Oher, 37, filed a petition in probate court accusing the Tuohys of lying to him by having him sign papers making them his conservators rather than his adoptive parents nearly two decades ago. Oher wanted the conservatorship to be terminated, a full accounting of the money earned off his name and story and to be paid what he is due, with interest.

He accused the couple of falsely representing themselves as his adoptive parents, saying he discovered in February the conservatorship agreed to in 2004 was not the arrangement he thought it was — and that it provided him no familial relationship to them.

Oher claims the Tuohys have kept him in the dark about financial dealings related to his name, image and likeness during the 19-year life of the agreement.

In a court filing, the affluent couple said they loved Oher like a son and provided him with food, shelter, clothing and cars while he lived with them, but denied saying they intended to legally adopt him.

The Tuohys’ filing said Oher referred to them as “mom and dad,” and they occasionally referred to Oher as a son. They acknowledged that websites show them referring to Oher as an adopted son, but the term was only used “in the colloquial sense and they have never intended that reference to be viewed with legal implication.”

The Tuohys said the conservatorship was the tool chosen to comply with NCAA rules that would have kept Oher from attending the University of Mississippi, where Sean Tuohy had been a standout basketball player.

“When it became clear that the Petitioner could not consider going to the University of Mississippi (”Ole Miss”) as a result of living with the Respondents, the NCAA made it clear that he could attend Ole Miss if he was part of the Tuohy family in some fashion,” the Tuohys’ Sept. 14 court filing said.

The Tuohys also said Oher lied about finding out that he was not adopted in February. They said Oher’s 2011 book “I Beat the Odds” indicates that he was fully aware that the Tuohys were appointed as conservators.

[quote]The Tuohys also said Oher lied about finding out that he was not adopted in February. They said Oher’s 2011 book “I Beat the Odds” indicates that he was fully aware that the Tuohys were appointed as conservators.

That they continue to harp on this makes me question how weak the rest of their defense will be in court. Oher's argument isn't "I was unaware of the conservatorship," it's "I was in a conservatorship only because they deceived me about what it meant."