Angelina Joli and Brad Pitt one of theTop 20 most generous stars

Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Oprah routinely top the media lists of the most generous celebrities. But if you're pulling in nearly a million dollars a day without hardly having to break a sweat, shouldn't you be giving something back?

The gap between the very richest one percent of Americans and the bottom has been widening ever since the Reagan Administration. The wealthiest one percent, or 14,000 families, control 22.2 percent of wealth, while the bottom 90 percent of us (133 million families) are left with just 4 percent of the total pie, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

What's more, the amount of the total income pie going to the very top of the top earners -- the .10 percent who fall into the Oprah category -- has been rising sharply, especially since 2000. The very top 1/10th percent of earners got 12.6 percent of the pie in 2007. And their share grew by 94 percent between 2002 and 2007. Not only are they getting more than the rest, but every year their slice is getting bigger.

So with all that pie, if you're one of the top of the top of the income pyramid, giving back is something that you should, if you have a conscience, consider.

A lot of celebrities know this and some seem to feel a bit guilty. Many celebrities shy away from publicizing their charitable giving. The Giving Back Fund has had trouble getting stars to release their charitable contributions for just that reason. They don't want to be seen as cashing in on their good works. But publicity is good because it can serve as a role model for others.

"Our hope is that celebrities will begin to become more comfortable sharing information about their charitable giving --- perhaps not disclosing everything they give, but sharing enough to enable them to serve as role-models to their peers and fans," said Marc Pollick, President and Founder of The Giving Back Fund.

Many, if not most celebrities are seriously committed to their causes and have used their fame to draw world attention to urgent global problems. But take a look at the Forbes magazine Celebrity 100 - which ranks the top earners and power brokers in the entertainment business --and you start to wonder why some of the very wealthiest aren't doing more. Or why some of those who aren't earning armored cars full of cash every minute are doing such good things but not getting much publicity.

The line between charity for charity sake and charity for the sake of public image is a hard one to distinguish. And maybe it doesn't even matter. If you're giving $50 million dollars to make the world a better place in some way, that money can do a lot of good and you deserve moral credit for giving it.

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