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Anne Hathaway's Neptune Problem
September 2008

Anne Hathaway's ex-boyfriend, Raffaello Follieri. spent his 30th birthday in jail after being convicted for 14 counts of fraud and money laundering. Columnists are debating how much Anne actually knew about what Raffaello was up to when he represented himself as a representative of the Vatican in order to swindle billionaire Ron Burkle out of millions of dollars - perhaps astrology can tell why Anne fell for Follieri.

Anne Hathaway has appeared to live a life as charmed as the princess she played in the Princess Diaries. Raised in affluent Millburn New Jersey, she has been acting since she was thirteen and is a trained soprano as well as stage actress. Her first break came at age 16 when she starred in a failed TV series, and she has worked steadily in major films ever since. She is the new face of Lancome beauty products.

Anne's astrological chart (11/12/1982, birthtime unknown) shows a quadruple conjunction of the Sun, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter. Venus and Jupiter are the two most beneficial planets in the astrological language. When Venus is fused with the Sun (the Self) in the birthchart, it grants beauty and the power of attraction. Jupiter, the planet of prosperity and abundance, joins the Sun and Venus to create a powerfully positive charge in Anne's life. This is a trio of luck and good fortune, and nearly certain success. People with a strong Jupiter in their charts often are confident and assured, with a strong sense of social justice and moral guidelines, and the presence of Mercury (mind and communication) there explains her strong intelligence and ability to slip in and out of roles as an actor. Mercury can be a bit of a shapeshifter and enjoys trying on various lifestyles for size.

This trio of planets fall in the passionate sign of Scorpio, revealing Anne's intensely emotional nature. She is not a person who enjoys the superficial: when she falls for a man, a cause or a film she wants to dive in with all that she has. Her Moon, showing her emotional needs and characteristics, is in Libra, the sign that yearns for partnership. That Moon in her chart is squared by Neptune, planet of mystery, confusion and illusion which suggests that she is perhaps excessively romantic and has a tendency to idealize the people around her. She loves to be in love and wants to see the best in everyone she meets.

When Anne met Follieri in 2004, transiting Neptune was beginning a series of challenging aspects to that powerful quadruple conjunction in Anne's chart of the Sun, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter that continued until May of this year when she finally ended the relationship. Under Neptune cycles we are more idealistic and therefore more easily duped, and this was certainly true of Anne Hathaway.

Follieri (6/26/1978, birthtime unknown), with the Sun in Cancer and the Moon in Pisces, was surely sensitive and nurturing and Anne would have responded to his sensitivity. His Moon (emotional security) linked up with her Venus (love), a powerful signature for "love at first sight." The brilliance of her entire quadruple Scorpio conjunction was in harmonious aspect to his Moon, and I suspect he fell for her as hard as she did for him. She was a princess, and he was a person who was striving to be a prince.

But their relationship would have been intensely physical as well, with Mars (drive and desire) in both their charts in perfect alignment. This was a passionate connection both physically and emotionally. Shortly after the two met, Follieri began a program of vaccinating school-age children in South America, a project which Anne found to be "an aphrodisiac." Uranus (autonomy and radical behavior) is in a stressful aspect to Follieri's Venus (relationships and partnership) which suggests that it would be difficult for him to settle down into a committed relationship.

One very interesting aspect in Follieri's chart is the square (challenging aspect) between Pluto (transformation, death and rebirth) to Jupiter (philosophy, prosperity and religion) in light of the fact that Follieri's scam involved profiting from the sale of properties owned by the Catholic Church (Jupiter) to settle lawsuits from sexual abuse (Pluto/Jupiter). The square of Pluto to Jupiter in the birthchart often shows an individual who is either rigid (Pluto) in his/her righteousness or religiosity (Jupiter), or someone whose confidence and desire for an easy road (Jupiter) becomes their downfall (Pluto).

In April 2007, when Follieri's world began to collapse, he was entering into the first stage of his Saturn Return, the planetary cycle that happens at age 28-30. During the Saturn Return we are challenged by the gods, and if we take the easy road we flunk those challenges. This is the road Follieri was on, and it was at this time that Ron Burkle sued him for misappropriating funds for their partnership. Transiting Neptune at the time was throwing a blanket of misty idealism and confusion over Anne's chart and she was doing her best to believe in her boyfriend until the Neptune cloud lifted last Spring and she finally ended things with Follieri.

Anne's strong Scorpio nature does not let go easily, but her Capricorn Mars is all business. She has her eye on the future and with Saturn and Neptune out of the way her path should be much more direct now.