The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Several topics really stood out this week, including the Oscars as social advocacy inspiration, civil rights and Black History Month, and lots of hot news on entertainment going Green. Check out our most popular posts of the week on these subjects, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites.

Katie:

Happy Belated “Freedom to Marry” Week!

Rosa and Raymond Parks: Valiant Valentine #5

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Nicole:

Top 10 Oscar Picks to Inspire Social Action

Cornel West: Black Thoughts On Black History Month

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Giulia:

H&M’s “Fashion Against AIDS”

Ed Begley Jr. Goes Green

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Gina:

Top 10 Best Picture Winners That Inspire

Remixing “Chicago 10″

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Kerry:

How To Set the World On Fire Without Burning Out

Eco-Brokers Cater to Green Homebuyers

I was so busy celebrating Valentine’s Day, finding guilt-free Valentine’s Day Gifts, and awarding Valiant Valentines to social action-taking couples, I didn’t have enough time to blog about Freedom To Marry Week, the great week-long holiday that celebrates marriage for all people. Freedom To Marry is an inclusive non profit organization dedicated to ending the exclusion of same-sex couples and their families from marriage.

Do you believe that people who love each other and are committed to each other also deserve to be able to marry each other? Then ! Sign the Marriage Resolution! And watch Julie Goldman and Kate McKinnon in the music video for Julie’s song Commitment Ceremony, which is both hilarious, and inspiring. Not to apply an peer pressure, but FYI, when you sign the pledge you’ll be in good company, joining fellow pledgers like Gillian Anderson, Matthew Broderick, Bea Arthur, Beck, Neve Campbell, Alan Cumming, Ted Danson & Mary Steenburgen, Ellen DeGeneres, Laura Dern, David Duchovny, Nora Ephron & Nick Pileggi, Melissa Etheridge, Al Franken, Whoopi Goldberg,

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Our second installation of the TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is here give you the very best of Katie, Nicole, Giulia, Gina and Kerry! More blogs means more to love this Valentine’s Day week, and more social action means a healthier and happier world for everyone. Check out our most popular posts of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites.

Katie:

5 Ways to Take Action and Get Action On Valentine’s Day

Top 10 Guilt-Free Valentine’s Day Jewelry Gifts: Show Your Valentine You Have a Heart

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Nicole:

Kiva: Microlending to Change Lives

Top 10 New Releases to Inspire Social Change

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Giulia:

Alicia Keys Uses Grammys to Help Keep a Child Alive

V-Day Celebrates Its 10 Year Anniversary!

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Gina:

Top 10 Movie Characters That Make A Difference

Art As Politics In “The Silence Before Bach”

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Kerry:

Tap Project Gets Donations Flowing For Safe Global Water

Levon Helms’ “Dirt Farmer” Wins Grammy Gold

Rocker Bono and artist Damien Hirst sent made it a very special Valentines for people in Africa Thursday night, raising more than $40 million for AIDS relief.

Queen Noor, Michael Stipe, Dennis Hopper, Martha Stewart, Christy Turlington, Ed Burns, Q-Tip, Helena Christensen, Brian Williams and Anna Wintour were among the celebs who turned out at Sotheby’s auction house to bid on the work of some of the world’s top artists.

Organizer Hirst’s piece, “Where There’s a Will There’s a Way,” fetched the top price of $7.15 million. Jasper Johns, Chuck Close, Jeff Koons, Ed Ruscha, Matthew Barney, Banksy, Richard Prince and Antony Gormley were among the 100 artists who donated masterpieces. The Gagosian Gallery-curated auction established new sales records for 17 artists.

The evening benefited (RED), the charity Bono and Bobby Shriver founded 18 months ago that has now generated more than $100 million for the UN-created Global Fund, according to (RED) organizers.

For more on (RED) and/or to get involved visit http://www.joinred.com

NAACP Image Awards, Academy Awards, Grammy’s are nothing new to the actor/activists Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. But for the first time ever, the dynamic duo win my Valiant Valentine Award. Valentine’s Day Week, kicked off my Valentine’s week-long series on the 5 coolest activist couples. I honored activist & actor Susan Sarandon and her partner, activist, actor & director Tim Robbins with a VVA, that’s a Valiant Valentine Award, for those of you just tuning in. Now I’m awarding another VVA to a couple who have shown their love for each other and for civil rights, human rights, and peace. And the award goes to…

Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee were not only award-winning and distinguished actors, but social change-winning and distinguished civil rights activists. The couple, married for 56 years, won NAACP Image Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, and was honored by the Kennedy Center, not only for their roles on stage and screen, but for their roles as trailblazers who opened the door for so many black actors who came after them.

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This Valentine’s Day, if you’re hoping to find that special someone who will “take actions” with you to make the world, and your love life, a better happier place, I have just the list for you. So here are the 5 best free on-line dating sites for finding that special someone to drink organic free trade hot cocoa with, to make a hemp necklace for, and to send action alerts to. Because, you know what they say: the personals is political.

1. Act For Love is a personals site where you can find the activist– and the cause– of your dreams. After you’re done searching through profiles, you can search through the action center where you will find things like “Less Pink, More Research” take action link, which urges Congress to pass the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act. Their motto, which I say after coming up with the title for this post, is “Take Action. Get Action.”

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Last week I promised it was possible to buy your valentine a great gift without selling your soul and Monday I put up a list of 10 great guilt-free jewelry gifts, so you Valentine’s Day shoppers should be all set. But, for those of you who still haven’t bought the special gift for that special someone, it’s not too late. If your valentine has a sweet tooth, and prefers chocolate to jewels, what could be sweeter than chocolate that tastes great and isn’t the product the exploitation and slavery of children. The reality of most chocolate production is sad and scary: According to the State Department, more than 109,000 children in the Ivory Coast’s cocoa industry work under “the worst forms of child labor,” 10,000 of whom are victims of human trafficking or enslavement. And with the U.S. consuming 2.8 billion pounds of chocolate annually, nearly half of the world’s supply, we can help end child labor chocolate production. So this Valentines Day, even if you’re last minute and don’t have time to order online, say “I love you” with slavery-free chocolates!

By searching Fair Trade Federation’s Website, I found 65 stores carrying fair trade chocolates and other fair trade guilt-free Valentine’s Day gifts. Here are some of my faves

1. If you live in the Bay Area (of course) or Portland, you can go to Global Exchange Stores and buy a chocolate assortment box to exchange with your valentine.

2. A Greater Gift, has stores in Maryland and Wisconsin , and is sold in several other locations, so it won’t be hard to find a Divine Chocolate Gift Set and support a farmers’ cooperative in Ghana.

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This Valentines Day, I am treating myself to a sneak preview of George Romero’s new film Diary of the Dead. I’m curious to see what Romero has up his sleeve, as his latest horror flick is said to be a commentary on young people, media and technology, and it’s also supposed to have a pretty strong anti-war message. I love political allegory and I love it when I can be entertained but still have something to think about afterwards - it’s what good cinema does!

Watch the trailer below and check back on Friday (when the film opens in LA and NY) for my thoughts about the film and it’s message and to see what the folks at the Youth Free Expression Network have to say about teens and technology today.

I am thrilled to hear the latest news about Nicole Kidman, just in time for Valentine’s Day! In case you missed the news, I’ll give you some hints about what the star told the people attending Germany’s Cinema For Peace ceremony last night. 1) Nicole is feeling some maternal instincts, 2) is going to be delivering something precious some time within the next 9 months, and 3) is looking forward to watching that something grow. Did you figure it out yet? Of course, I’m talking about Nicole’s announcement that she’s expecting– expecting people from all around the world to Say No to Violence Against Women!

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Tiffany & Co., Ben Bridge Jeweler, Helzberg Diamonds, Fortunoff, and Leber Jeweler, Inc celebrated Valentine’s day two days early this year. Today, these 5 jewelry retailers said “I love you” to the planet, when they took a pledge to protect Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed from large-scale metal mining that would pollute the water, and endanger salmon and caribou. Of course, I know it was my posting yesterday and last week on responsible Valentine’s Day Shopping that convinced the companies to support the environment. But I would also like to thank organizations like OxFam and EarthWorks, and the No Dirty Gold Campaign for taking action. When jewelry is made in safe conditions that do not harm the environment, everyone wins.

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