Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie
Brad Pitt promised to "make it right" when he visited New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward two years after Hurricane Katrina and found the neighborhood still devastated and deserted. He kept his word, literally, when he started the Make It Right foundation dedicated to rebuilding the Lower 9th, in part by constructing 150 affordable, green, storm resistant homes in the neighborhood. It is just a fraction of the neighborhood's more than 4,000 homes destroyed by Katrina, but for the residents who called the area home, Pitt's work provides more than just a roof over their heads. "When I hear Make It Right's name, the first thing I think of is hope," said Diedra Taylor, a single mother of four, who now lives in a Make It Right home.
For her part, Mrs. Pitt keeps pace with her husband with her own humanitarian work. She has worked with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and toured refugee camps worldwide as part of her work as an Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Perhaps most impressive for an actress of her status, she insists on living in the same rudimentary working and living conditions as the rest of the UN's field staff and covers all costs related to her missions. When asked what she hoped to accomplish with her work she said, "Awareness [of] the plight of these people. ... They are my heroes."