“Everybody should be mad at the Hollywood studio system,” [Michael] Lewis told The Washington Post. “Michael Oher should join the writers strike. It’s outrageous how Hollywood accounting works, but the money is not in the Tuohys’ pockets.”
Lewis said the studio paid $250,000 for the option to make the book into a movie, and he said he split the money evenly with the Tuohy family. He said the Tuohy family said they split their share. While the movie was a box office smash, Lewis said he and the Tuohy family received around $350,000 each from the movie’s profits.
Lewis said the Tuohy family planned to share the money with Oher, but the NFL player declined his royalty checks. Lewis said he thought the Tuohy family had put the checks into a trust for Oher’s 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.”
[According to Lewis, Oher has been estranged from the Tuohys for a decade — which would have been during his NFL playing days. That’s a long time for this to percolate, but it’s also a long time to fail to research Oher’s assumptions, too. Lewis clearly thinks Oher’s off the reservation here; one has to think he’s close enough to all parties and to the money to know the truth without having a personal interest in it himself. It’s tremendously sad all around. — Ed]
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