Pubdate: Sun, 11 Jun 2000 Source: Toronto Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2000 The Toronto Star Contact: One Yonge St., Toronto ON, M5E 1E6 Fax: (416) 869-4322 Website: http://www.thestar.com/ Forum: http://www.thestar.com/editorial/disc_board/ Author: Betsy Powell, Entertainment Reporter GRASS THE FILM PUTS NEW FIRE UNDER WOODY Film star Woody Harrelson, a longtime Hollywood proponent of the legalization of marijuana, says a new Canadian-made film opening this week inspired him to continue his pro-pot crusade. He agreed to narrate Toronto filmmaker Ron Mann's acclaimed documentary, Grass, after seeing rough cuts on a video sent to him by his brother Brett. "I felt like I was too immersed in the whole issue and really needed to just back away from it for a while. But when I saw it I loved it," said the actor. "People know how I feel . . . someone else needs to take up this thing and yet now I feel like, well I can't just do something halfway. I might as well go for it 'cause it's important." Harrelson, 38, has a tough time keeping his opinions to himself. A dedicated environmentalist, he participates in protests and gets arrested for doing so. In 1991, he opposed the Gulf War and let people know it. He doesn't think being an advocate has cost him any roles, but admits "I don't think it's necessarily a positive thing for one's career." His on-screen credits also include some controversial films, such as Indecent Proposal, Natural Born Killers and The People Vs. Larry Flynt, a role that earned him an Oscar nomination in 1997. "Probably some people wouldn't offer me a job because of it, but those aren't the people I want to work with anyway," said Harrelson, who is probably best known for six seasons of tending bar as Woody Boyd on the much-loved TV series Cheers. Pot smoking is as pervasive in Hollywood as it is throughout North America, he said. "It's very widespread. Statistics are 20 million smoke it in this country. I don't know about Canada, though my experience is that it's just as prolific there." Yet celebrities are reluctant to take a stand because they don't want to get mixed up in controversy, Harrelson said in a telephone interview from Hawaii. "I think that they're afraid of the repercussions, though I do think some would be willing to come out about it," he says. But Harrelson, who is taking a hiatus to spend time with his two children, says the cause is too important for him not to push for change. "I've had too many friends go to jail, and I'm really upset about it," he says. "It's just wrong. These are non-violent people. Good people." Harrelson says Grass builds a persuasive case, in an entertaining way, that the U.S. government's $100 billion (U.S.) war against illegal drugs - "That doesn't exist, actually; it's a war on non-corporate drugs" - has been a bust. And he blames the pharmaceutical and beer industries for fighting to keep marijuana illegal. He laughed when told of the film's near ban in Ontario. On Monday, the Ontario Film Review Board reversed a decision to keep Grass out of theatres unless a 20-second snippet showing laboratory monkeys smoking pot was cut. "It's nice to know censorship is alive and well," he said. Grass, which debuted at the Toronto Film Festival last September, opens Friday at the Bloor Cinema for a one-week run after last night's midnight showing at the Paramount. Harrelson plans to promote it with Mann and will accompany the filmmaker to Czechoslovakia. Harrelson hopes Grass will reach a broad audience, rather than preaching to the converted. Lawmakers in Washington, D.C., for instance, would be an ideal target audience, though he's not optimistic they'll flock to theatres to see it. - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck