Being in love with more than one person at the same time is risky business. Yet these 5 couples have it all: they are able to love more than one person without causing the broken hearts and dishes that often accompany polyamorous relationships. What’s their trick? They love each other AND the planet, human rights, and civil rights, and they take action to make the world a better place together. Because these lovebirds bring so much love to each other and the world, because their heart-felt hard work has won my heart, I’d like to give them a Valiant Valentine Award (VVA).

Today’s Valiant Valentine, which kicks off my 5-part Valentine’s week-long series, goes to a couple who has already received a few awards here and there, though none as prestigious as the VVA. She’s a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador who scored Academy Awards, and awards from Amnesty International and The Center for Constitutional Rights. He’s no small potatoes either, having won his own Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and a Best actor “Prix” at Cannes.

It was exactly 20 years ago, on the set of the baseball movie Bull Durham, that actors Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins first met. And they’ve been acting together– and taking action together– ever since.

The dynamic duo come together for peace and justice, both on screen and off screen. Through the film Dead Man Walking, which Robbins directed and which would win Sarandon her Best Actress Oscar, the couple depicted the inhumanity of capital punishment. The director and actress teamed up again for Cradle Will Rock, the under-rated film based on the 1930’s play funded by the WPA, which highlights the importance of freedom of expression, the arts, workers’ rights, and the dangers of fascism, censorship and blacklisting. In 1993, while presenting an Academy Award, the couple drew attention to the plight of the hundreds of HIV-positive asylum-seeking Haitian refugees who were being detained at Guantanamo Bay.

Of course like all healthy couples, Sarandon and Robbins maintain their independence. Who could forget Tim Robbins’ directorial debut, Bob Roberts, a hilarious mockumentary about a guitar-playing hawkish presidential nominee, which satirizes political corruption, opportunism and media complicity. And Susan Sarandon’s heart-wrenching performance as Louise in Thelma and Louise marked a revolutionary gender-role inversion of the typically male bad-ass buddy road trip movie. And then there’s The Shawshank Redemption, Jacob’s Ladder, The Secret Life of Words, In the Valley of Elah, Embedded…

Two decades after meeting, Sarandon and Robbins haven’t slowed down, despite the opposition they’ve faced as a result of their activism (being uninvited to events, having engagements canceled, even receiving death threats). Just last month, the couple traveled to Banff, Canada to support Robert F. Kennedy’s Water Keeper’s Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to keeping the water we drink pollution-free. Their constant and brave anti-war activism is proof that these lovers– not fighters– would rather “make love, not war.” (I mean, wouldn’t you if your snuggle body was Susan or Tim?). And both Tim and Susan, 12 years his senior, (not that you would guess that in 100 years) look as good– I would say better– than ever. Sarandon’s upcoming film The Colossus, a tale of romance and activism set during the Boer war in South Africa, is a perfect fit for this couple. In fact, if the film took place later, in another time period and on another continent, it could be the Colossal love story of Susan and Tim.

Inspired yet? If you’re looking for something to spice up your relationship, there’s nothing sexier than social action. If you’re looking for your own valentine, sometimes taking action is the best way to get action. So check out these SaRobbinsOn-endorsed organizations. And come back tomorrow to see who wins the 2nd Valiant Valentine Award.

See what makes Tim and check out the organizations he recommends on his website. If you liked Dead Man Walking and don’t like capital punishment, check out the N.C.A.D.P and their campaigns. For an interesting perspective, check out Murdered Victims’ Families For Reconciliation. If you’re more of a Susan, for MADRE, The Human Rights network of community-based women’s organizations around the world, and go on a human rights delegation trip to Latin America or Africa. And check out Susan’s “pet” projects Heifer International and The Hunger Project.