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The Canadian Press - ONLINE EDITION

Actress Pam Grier praises 'War Horse,' Streep, Close and Davis

By: Victoria Ahearn, The Canadian Press

Posted: 02/23/2012 4:01 AM | Comments: 0 | Last Modified: 02/23/2012 6:38 AM

Actress Pam Grier (NATHAN DENETTE / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

TORONTO - The Canadian Press has been asking entertainment personalities to share their thoughts on Sunday's Academy Awards. Today, actress Pam Grier — star of films including "Foxy Brown," "Sheba, Baby" and "Coffy" — discusses which feature she thinks will win best picture and who could win best actress. Grier, 62, recently made waves on the TV series "The L Word" and "Smallville." She lives on a farm in Colorado and has been touring to promote her 2010 memoir "Foxy: My Life in Three Acts."

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"'War Horse,' because I have horses and I saw how (lead equine Joey) transformed a German soldier and a British soldier ... how that horse transformed them and for one minute they weren't in war. For one minute they were trying to release this animal, free him up from his pain and agony, and then they flipped a coin as to who was going to get him and it went back to the young man who had trained the horse," said Grier.

"It should be 'War Horse,' not 'The Help.' I'm sorry. Eatin' pies made out of you know what ... no," she added, referencing the infamous chocolate pie scene in "The Help."

"The overall emphasis of war and how an animal transformed lives, the farm, going off to war, and all the people who had met this horse along the way as it was returned — I'm getting the chills from that. It should be 'War Horse.'"

On the best-actress category, Grier said: "Meryl Streep kicks butt. Well, she could split the votes with Glenn Close ... because Glenn Close is just mesmerizing. ... And if they split the vote, Viola (Davis) could win. Her performance was brilliant, it's heart-breaking. But it's going to be up to those voters and many of them are businessmen and many of them, when they're members of the Academy, they say: 'Well, who's going to green-light five pictures for the next three years and put a thousand people to work?'"

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The nominees for best picture are: "The Artist"; "The Descendants";"Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"; "The Help"; "Hugo"; "Midnight in Paris"; "Moneyball"; "The Tree of Life"; and "War Horse."

The nominees for best actress are: Glenn Close for "Albert Nobbs"; Viola Davis for "The Help"; Rooney Mara for "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"; Meryl Streep for "The Iron Lady"; and Michelle Williams for "My Week with Marilyn."

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