by Angie Barron

Created on: January 26, 2009

Angelina Jolie is a fun character indeed. Tattoos, black eyeliner and that famous vial of Billy Bob's blood all have made her a star. Even though this woman is perhaps the most generous philanthropist to date, we will still always remember her as crazy little Angie. Cute little heroin addict, self mutilating Angie, the wild child of Hollywood. Angelina has gone through some dark times in her life. Growing up in Hollywood with a famous actor father and a fashion model mother couldn't have been easy. But all sarcasm aside, her father was estranged for much of her life and drug addiction and severe depression could very well have ended it. It's hard for many people to sympathize with Angelina's speckled past because she resembles so many other spoiled Hollywood brats.

We all criticize celebrities for how much money they make. We sit and speculate about how many starving mouths just one NBA paycheck could feed. Think of all the whales Madonna could save with the cash from just one of her spectacularly glamorous performances. But what happens when one of them actually decides to give back? We attack them for it. So many people question Angelina Jolie's true motives for her charitable efforts. "She is only doing it for the publicity", "She's just trying to make up for her crazy past or her affair with Brad". Everybody has an opinion, and they're all moot.

I think the character of Joey Tribbiani from "Friends" said it best, "There is no such thing as a selfless good deed.". We all do the right thing so that we can feel good about ourselves. None of us have ever done one single charitable thing without gaining something in return. Whether we gain publicity or simply a sense of pride we are all guilty of the "selfish good deed". The only difference between us and Angelina Jolie is that Angelina does A LOT more than we do. The people that this woman is helping don't care why she is doing it, and neither should we. A child who is fed by a celebrity with questionable motives is none the less FED and that is all that matters.

Say what you will about the tattooed temptress but before you do, keep this in mind. In 2008 she and Brad Pitt gave $100,000 to the Global Action for Children which is peanuts compared to the $1,000,000 given in 2006 and don't forget the $8,000,000 given to various other charities for children that year. Not enough for you? Don't worry there's more to come and always will be. The woman isn't perfect but her recent actions are closer to it than many of ours and for that I think it's alright to give her just a little credit, and maybe a small pat on the back.

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