* is a major contender on Dancing With the Stars this season

* starred as Tracy Turnblad in the original Hairspray

* had her own TV talk show for 11 years

You should know that Ricki Lake:

* is donating her Dancing With the Stars earnings to the Jacaranda Foundation to help children orphaned by AIDS in Malawi

* produced The Business of Being Born, and has been very involved with birthing issues and exploring the maternal mortality rate in the U.S.

* has participated in the Avon Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk

* won a Best TV Actress Golden Globe for her role on Alias

* is married to Ben Affleck, and is pregnant with their third child

* is developing Alexandra Robbins’ popular book, The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth, as a TV sitcom

You should know that Jennifer Garner …

* has teamed up with Frigidaire® for the “Make Time for Change” campaign to support Save the Children

* recently hosted the Elyse Walker Presents Pink Party ’11 to benefit Cedars-Sinai Women’s Cancer Program

* has been an active supporter of Make Poverty History

* hosted the 2011 Emmy Awards on Sunday night

* is hilarious as the mean-spirited cheerleading coach, Sue Sylvester, on Glee

* played Julia Child’s sister in Julie & Julia

You should know that Jane Lynch:

* hosted the 2011 Do Something Awards, honoring the nation’s top young do-gooders

* believes that “charity work makes you well-rounded,” and supports many local non-profits

* starred in a public service announcement for PETA, encouraging pet owners to spay/neuter their dogs and cats

* shook up MTV’s Video Music Awards on Sunday night by performing “You and I” as male alter-ego Jo Calderone.

* is the first artist in history to claim four #1 singles from a debut album. The album: “The Fame.” The singles: “Just Dance,” “Pokerface,” “Lovegame,” “Paparazzi“

* set a music industry record when the title track from her album, “Born This Way,” became the fastest single in history to reach sales of 1,000,000 copies

You should know that Lady Gaga …

* teamed up with MAC-AIDS Fund’s VIVA GLAM campaign, which raised more than $160 million to help fight HIV/AIDS. 100% of all proceeds from VIVA GLAM lipstick benefit this Fund, so buy one now!

* donated all the proceeds from one show of her Monster Ball concert tour — more than half a million dollars — to help the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

* offered VIP tickets to her concert to volunteers at homeless youth organizations, generating 30,000 hours of community service and raising more than $80,000 for non-profit groups like The National Alliance to End Homelessness, Green Chimneys, STANDUP FOR KIDS and Virgin Unite.

Check out what you might know/should know about other celebrities like Amy Winehouse and Anne Hathaway.

* is currently starring in the movie version of One Day

* will be playing Catwoman in the next Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises

* hosted the Academy Awards last year, and received a Best Actress nomination in 2009 for her role in Rachel Getting Married

You should know that Anne Hathaway …

* is very involved with The Trevor Project, and stars in their “It Gets Better” video

* has hosted special screenings of Get Smart and The Devil Wears Prada for the Lollipop Theater Network, a non-profit organization which brings new movies to children confined to the hospital for chronic or life-threatening illnesses

* supports The Creative Coalition, the entertainment industry’s premier non-profit, non-partisan social and political advocacy organization

Check out what you might know/should know about other celebrities like Viola Davis and Emma Stone, both starring in “The Help.”

* is starring in two of our favorite movies of the moment, The Help and Crazy, Stupid, Love

* just won the Teen Choice Award for Movie Actress in a Comedy for Easy A

* made her movie debut in Superbad

You should know that Emma Stone…

* is one of the latest celebrities to join Stand Up to Cancer

* supports Gilda’s Club

* was raised by parents who believed strongly in philanthropy, and her father has a non-profit called Summit Charity

* is starring in The Help, coming to theaters this week

* received a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination for her eight minute appearance in Doubt

* won Tony Awards for her performances in Fences and King Hedley II

You should know that Viola Davis:

* hosted the 20th annual Friendly House luncheon, celebrating women going through drug addiction recovery at the rehab facility

* supports Soles 4 Souls, a non-profit organization which collects shoes for people in need

* has joined Forest Whitaker in his efforts to raise awareness for Mandela Day, a global initiative asking people to give 67 minutes of their time to charity in honor of the 67 years Nelson Mandela fought for human rights

* tragically passed away last weekend at the age of 27

* won five Grammy Awards for her album, “Back to Black”

* made it into the top ten on both the US and UK charts with her biggest hit, “Rehab”

You should know that Amy Winehouse:

* posed nude in Easy Living magazine to raise awareness of breast cancer

* was a celebrity ambassador for Hear the World, a global non-profit initiative whose mission is to educate people about the consequences of hearing loss

* donated her song, “Back to Black,” to the Global Fund’s Born HIV Free campaign for its Baby in the Sky video (see below).

* became a judge on American Idol last season

* was named the “World’s Most Beautiful Woman” by People magazine

* is divorcing her husband, Marc Anthony, after seven years of marriage

You should know that Jennifer Lopez:

* received a “Mothers Who Make a Difference” award from Love Our Children USA, a national non-profit organization dedicated to preventing and fighting all forms of violence and neglect against children.

* created a bilingual website, in conjunction with Amnesty International, to raise awareness about Mexican femicide after filming Bordertown and learning that 350 young women had been killed in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua since 1993.

* won an Academy Award for her amazing performance in Black Swan

* graduated from Harvard

* just gave birth to a baby boy

You should know that Natalie Portman:

* was named the first Ambassador of Hope for FINCA International and is co-chair of the Village Banking Campaign, for which she was nominated for an MTV “Do Something” Award. As Natalie explained at the launch of the campaign in 2007, “FINCA’s Village Banking Campaign offers small loans and savings programs to the world’s most underprivileged people. It is transformational. Small loans can transform lives, especially the lives of women and children. The poor can become empowered instead of disenfranchised. Homes can be built, jobs can be created, businesses can be launched, and individuals can feel a sense of worth again. Over 70% of FINCA’s clients are women determined to lift their families out of poverty, and, remarkably, the first thing these women spend their earnings on, is education for their children.”