Blind Side author Michael Lewis addresses Michael Ohers lawsuit against the Tuohys

Michael Lewis literally wrote the book on the Tuohy family and Michael Oher. Lewis, a longtime friend of Sean Tuohy, wrote The Blind Side, which was adapted into the successful film. Lewis’s book was ground zero for the misinformation about Oher for years, and Oher only learned this year that the Tuohys had never adopted him, that they put him into a conservatorship without his knowledge. Lewis’s book fudged that fact with the talk of “guardianship” and then the film adaptation just lied about it totally, saying that Oher was adopted by the Tuohys. Lewis missed the chance to actually be an investigative journalist and tell the truth about the Tuohys. Instead, he’s toeing the Tuohys’ line and suggesting that Oher’s lawsuit is solely about the profits from the film (of which Oher was scammed out of his life rights).

In an interview with The Washington Post, Michael Lewis said that despite the movie’s success, no one involved in the book saw millions of dollars from the movie.

“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.”

According to Lewis, Twentieth Century Fox, as it was then known, paid $250,000 for the option to make “The Blind Side” a movie, which he split 50-50 with the Tuohy family. The Tuohys have said they split their share evenly, including with Oher. After taxes and agent fees, Lewis said, his half was around $70,000. Fox, however, never made the movie. (According to Lewis, the studio had thought Julia Roberts would be interested in the film, but she wasn’t.) Instead, Lewis said, Alcon, a small production company backed by Tuohy’s neighbor, FedEx CEO Fred Smith, stepped in. Instead of paying the actors large salaries, Lewis said, they were offered a share of the profits. Lewis said his deal provided him a share of the movie’s net profits, too. Warner Bros. distributed the movie.

According to Lewis, the film made around half a billion dollars, but the equity stake in the movie was not as lucrative as it would appear. In fact, he said, he had called his own representatives at Creative Artists Agency over the years, following the movie’s success, asking about his share of the profits.

Lewis said that ultimately after agent fees and taxes, he and the Tuohy family received around $350,000 each from the profits of the movie. Lewis said the Tuohys planned to share the royalties among the family members, including Oher, but Oher began declining his royalty checks, Lewis said. Lewis said he believed the Tuohy family had deposited Oher’s share in a trust fund for Oher’s son. Additionally, Lewis said that two years ago Oher called him to ask about a speaking tour to make money discussing the book. Lewis raised the idea to his agent, but nothing came of it.

“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.”

[From WaPo]

This is journalistic malpractice and everyone should be extremely suspicious of Lewis’s books and reporting now. Lewis completely glosses over the lies about adoption and the fact that the conservatorship was never removed after Oher graduated from Ole Miss. Surely, if the argument was “the conservatorship was just a way to work around the NCAA booster rules,” then the jig would be up once Oher graduated? But no, the Tuohys never removed it, because that would mean that they would have to admit that they lied to Oher about adopting him, and that they scammed him out of his life rights. As for all of the talk about who made what from the film… like, I would halfway believe that the Tuohys got screwed out of their backend, except they’ve lied about literally everything else, so…

In case you need more evidence that Lewis is parroting the Tuohys’ line, people dug up this clip of Lewis being mind-numbingly racist about Oher and his intelligence. One of Oher’s complaints was that the Tuohys promoted a version of his life in which he was stupid or mentally deficient. He was not.

Michael Oher disliked being portrayed as 'dumb' in the #Blindside film.

Where did that stigma around Oher originate?

Listen to the author of the Blindside book – Michael Lewis – speak of Oher's academic achievements to a group at Google.

Full talk: https://t.co/IfBQgaDFN2 pic.twitter.com/cYT8D5DVD2

— Nancy French (@NancyAFrench) August 15, 2023

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

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