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.
