Stephen: The Blind Side subject alleges family didn’t adopt him, cut him out of film profits

Everyone remembers the Sandra Bullock-led movie The Blind Side, a film for which she won an Oscar and that made hundreds of millions at the box office. It told the story about Michael Oher, a football player who overcame poverty to become a football star and make the NFL, with the help of the Tuohy family, who supposedly adopted him. Oher and his legal representatives are now alleging that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy (who Bullock portrayed in the film) did not legally adopt him, and in fact, entered him into a conservatorship, which is defined by WebMD as “a legal way to limit or control someone’s ability to make certain choices.” Britney Spears recently had a high-profile and reportedly exploitative conservatorship ended that was in the hands of her father.

Oher also alleges that because of this conservatorship, he was cut out of any profits of the film. His petition states that the Tuohy family negotiated a deal with 20th Century Fox that saw them receive a payment of $225,000 and 2.5% of the film’s net earnings, which would equal over $7.7 Million. Sean Tuohy said in a statement to the Daily Memphian that he was devastated by the allegations in the petition and that his family did not take any money from the film. Oher was a ward of the state of Tennessee as a child and was frequently taken in by the families of classmates at Briarcrest Christian School and he was allegedly told by the Tuohy that he was to be adopted by them.