Now that she has helped to shape boyfriend Brad Pitt's makeover from a fresh-faced heart throb to a hirsute intellectual with glasses that any self-serving academic would sever a tweed jacket arm-patch for, she has also found the time to assist an American pro bono program.

The New York Daily News reports that Jolie is funding a not-for-profit organisation called Kids in Need of Defense, which enlists pro bono lawyers to act for underage illegal immigrants in the United States facing deportation.

The New York Daily News reports that in New York alone, the program has helped more than 500 children to have access to legal representation when facing an immigration judge.

"I can't imagine having to go through that process without someone there to help you understand what's going on," said Bridget Brown, a lawyer with Manhattan firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner.

While Folklaw will always remember Jolie fondly from Hackers and Girl, Interrupted, recent shockers such as Kung Fu Panda and Mr & Mrs Smith have meant that the actress has fallen off our critical radar recently.

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Her pro bono work, as well as her continued commitment to humanitarian causes, means that she has finally squared the ledger after the crime against cinematography that was Lara Croft Tombraider: The Cradle of Life in 2003.