15 replies to this topic

[BSLMikeLowe]

It’s a sick irony that a big premise of this story was a rich White family being unjustly suspected of exploiting the physical talents of a homeless young Black man, and today we learn that is exactly what they were doing.

 

https://www.espn.com...l-film-proceeds

[glenn__davis]

It’s a sick irony that a big premise of this story was a rich White family being unjustly suspected of exploiting the physical talents of a homeless young Black man, and today we learn that is exactly what they were doing.

 

https://www.espn.com...l-film-proceeds

 

Allegedly.

 

The family, as you would expect, denies the allegation.  There's almost always 2 sides to the story.

 

Will be interesting to see this one play out in court.  

[BSLMikeLowe]

I will say that people going after Sandra Bullock and saying she should return her Oscar is ridiculous.

[glenn__davis]

I will say that people going after Sandra Bullock and saying she should return her Oscar is ridiculous.

 

Of course it is.

 

The problem I have with the way we consume these stories is that it's such a knife-edge one way or the other.

 

If Oher's allegations are true, then yes, the Tuohy's are pretty terrible people and deserve all the scorn headed their way.  And many have already decided that that is the case.

 

They say that the allegations are not true, that they've been upfront with everything, and that he's tried this before with several lawyers who ultimately all backed out once they saw the records.  And if that's the case, then it's Oher who seems like not such a good dude.

 

Will be interesting to see if gets to court, but I would guess there's a settlement at some point.

[TwentyThirtyFive]

Yeah two sides to a story. Ill wait til things play out further. Ive always felt like Oher is bitter. Of course that could be because what he alleges here is true.

[glenn__davis]

I know he didn't like the way he was portrayed in the movie, and I don't blame him.  The movie definitely portrayed him as a dumb helpless black kid helped out by the nice rich white folks.  I don't think the movie would be made today.

 

But outside of that I always got the impression that he still got along well with the Tuohy's.  Either way it's a bummer ending.  Either he found they were taking advantage of him all along, which really stinks, or he's trying to strong arm them into a payday, which also really stinks.

[russsnyder]

I will say that people going after Sandra Bullock and saying she should return her Oscar is ridiculous.

Some people really want her to return her Oscar?

My hope is that she doesn't even consider such a stupid suggestion.

She played a role, plain and simple.

[russsnyder]

I know he didn't like the way he was portrayed in the movie, and I don't blame him. The movie definitely portrayed him as a dumb helpless black kid helped out by the nice rich white folks. I don't think the movie would be made today.

But outside of that I always got the impression that he still got along well with the Tuohy's. Either way it's a bummer ending. Either he found they were taking advantage of him all along, which really stinks, or he's trying to strong arm them into a payday, which also really stinks.

They made Oher seem like this helpless, naive, gentle giant in the movie. I can see why he didn't care for the portrayal. You're correct, however this plays out it will be a disappointing ending.

[Mike B]

Some people really want her to return her Oscar?

My hope is that she doesn't even consider such a stupid suggestion.

She played a role, plain and simple.

Yea, I heard that the other day.  Bullock is an actress, she played the role well and got an award.  Taking the award away is stupid.

[BSLMikeLowe]

As is often the case in disputes like this, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle with much open to interpretation.

 

Even removing the inaccuracies and made-for-Hollywood fluff, it was still a great success story and it's a shame to see it come to this.

[Nigel Tufnel]

It sounds like maybe they did a conservatorship in the first place because it was quick, and, since the Tuhoys were boosters, he needed to be part of the family ASAP in order to play at Ole Miss.  But while under the conservatorship, he played in the NFL, got married, bought a house, wrote a book, etc. while apparently being estranged from the Tuhoys, so it doesn't seem like a Britney Spears situation.

 

It also sounds like Hollywood kind of screwed everybody over.  They wrote the movie as a vehicle for Sandra Bullock, so the Oher character became kind of a hapless moron who she saved and also taught to play football.  So that probably sucked for Oher, once people saw the movie and assumed it was real.

 

According to Michael Lewis, who wrote the book, his total payout was $600,000, which he split 50/50 with the Tuhoy family.  The Tuhoys split their $300,000 evenly between each family member, so that's $60,000 for Oher (which he may have declined?).  Even though the movie made $300M+ and they were supposed to get 2.5% of the net profits, Hollywood accounting took care of that.

 

I guess the real Mrs. Tuhoy has been making money from speaking engagements, and I'm assuming no one would have any interest in listening to her if it weren't for the book/movie, so Oher may have a point there.  To some extent he probably just feels like the movie ruined his life without him even getting paid for it, and he blames the Tuhoys.  So that kind of sucks.

[BobPhelan]

I thought the movie was terrible and her performance as well but not sure what her winning an award for a movie has to do with however this shakes out.

[BSLMikeLowe]

I thought the movie was terrible and her performance as well but not sure what her winning an award for a movie has to do with however this shakes out.

 

I thought she gave a great performance. But I guess if someone doesn't like the story overall, they're unlikely to be impressed by how the lead actor did.

[BobPhelan]

I thought she gave a great performance. But I guess if someone doesn't like the story overall, they're unlikely to be impressed by how the lead actor did.

Felt like a Hallmark movie.

[russsnyder]

Felt like a Hallmark movie.

That's an accurate description.

I got through it,but I thought it was kind of hokey.

[russsnyder]

Getting back to the Tuhoy/Oher drama.

I saw a couple of startling claims from both sides in an article in The Athletic. First, Oher claims to only have recently learned (last February) that he was never adopted by the Tuhoy family. In the same article, Mr. Tuhoy claims that the family didn't know that they could've actually adopted Other when he was 18. These two positions seem sort of unbelievable to me.