Anne Hathaway -- It's Time to Get Smart About the Men You Date!
Just last weekend Anne Hathaway kicked box office and Kaos bad guy butt, in her role as Agent 99 in Get Smart. The film, which raked in $39.2 million — beating all competition — showcases Hathaway as the brilliant, beautiful, crime fighting straight man to novice Control field agent Maxwell Smart.
But while Agent 99 effortlessly skydives, tangos and finishes off evil doers in a powerful female role, Hathaway in real life has been a whole lot less than smart. Her boyfriend, Italian businessman Raffaello Follieri, 30, has just been charged with bilking millions out of investors.
So how could one of America's most promising young actresses happen to get tangled 
up romantically for over three years with a guy like this?
I mean, if someone who is as gorgeous and successful as Hathaway can't find a real life "good guy" is there hope for any single woman? And if a woman can "play" as empowered a role as Agent 99 — and I'm not kidding, 99 is a very impressive chick — how can she be so disempowered in her personal life?
Hathaway, 25, only split up with her boyfriend last week just before he was charged. But it's been more than a year since he was first accused of misusing the money of his investors.
In The Princess Diaries, Hathaway played an awkward teenage girl who finds out that she is actually a princess and heir to the throne of a small European country. It's an uplifting fairytale. In another of her films, Ella Enchanted, she plays the title role of an enchanted young woman, who ends up marrying a handsome prince. Maybe starring in two fairytales made her more willing to believe that a con man really was a globe-trotting multimillionaire who was representing the Vatican in real estate deals.
"She wanted to believe him. She probably felt that she had found her real-life Prince Charming: handsome, rich and debonair," celebrity psychiatrist Carole Lieberman. tells me. "But three years is a long time to be close to someone and be conned."
Follieri is accused of using his investors' funds to support a lavish jet set lifestyle fit for a modern day princess/Hollywood A-list actress.
"He may have felt he needed to be bigger, richer and more important, for her to love him," believes Lieberman, the author of Bad Boys: Why We Love Them, How to Live With Them, and When to Leave Them. "And Hathaway probably didn't want to let whatever clues to the truth that were there, penetrate her consciousness. She didn't want to wake up from the "fairy-tale," surmises Lieberman.
On the other hand, maybe Hathaway was so busy working — she is currently filming Bride Wars with Kate Hudson — and has recently completed two other films. She didn't have time to question her lover's business dealings.
"It's easy to 
keep secrets from someone you hardly see," points out psychologist and syndicated radio host, Cooper Lawrence.
Hey, loads of couples keep secrets from partners that they see all the time and he clearly appears to be an exceptionally good con man.
But Hathaway can take some comfort in the fact that she is not alone — this has been quite the season of smart, successful women getting conned by the men they thought were princes.
But Hathaway can take some comfort in the fact that she is not alone — this has been quite the season of smart, successful women getting conned by the men they thought were princes.
So true. And — in this case — Hathaway's standout performance in Brokeback Mountain, she herself plays a wife in denial about her husband's homosexuality. In fact, even the extraordinarily capable Agent 99 ends up getting conned by an ex-lover who is revealed to be a
double agent.
Maybe, Anne Hathaway, shouldn't feel so badly after all. Almost every woman would still love to live a fairytale.
Photos: AP
Follow Bonnie Fuller on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bonniefuller
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I'm the last person to judge Anne. Men appear one way to a gf and another to everyone else perhaps. Or it seems so to me. I have such a lousy track record. Maybe he was good at manipulating her (and men think women as the manipulators: ha!). Men seem to be consummate actors to me. I can't believe one in a romantic sense as far as I can throw one. Maybe she bought into excuses he made. You can get to a place where you WANT to believe. It's very dangerous TO YOU but highly advantageous to the guy.
I seem stuck on repeating this lesson, among others. Good luck, Anne. Try to remember that you deserve better.
hey, let's lighten up on ann --- he was a con man and he very successful one at that. he convinced other bright, smart, wealthy people out of millions of dollars. people like that are so good at what they do, you can never imagine the things they say or stuff they have are lies and all facade.
she found out. she dumped him. end of story.
Since when is it wrong for women to date rich guys. And since when rich guys automatically become bad mates.
try to keep "socialism" restricted to business and politics. What would you have Anne Hathaway date rather. some poor loser ??
Plenty of young women have chosen "bad" boys. Maybe that is why some cultures developed arranged marriages. Anyway, making a bad choice in a man does not mean she herself is bad, especially if she broke up with him.
Imagine if she had married and/or had babies with him, and then found out he is a lying piece of sh*t.
Indeed.
Plenty of bright people get taken in by con artists all the time. Look at all the Obama supporters.
Look at the United States of America and 7+ years of G W Bush.
ROTFLMAO, good one mamacat! :-)
Mamacat said, "Look at the United States of America and 7+ years of GW Bush."
A wise observation mamacat.
Having been divorced and through the dating mill, but now happily married to a great guy, I called GW Bush and Cheney on the nose. Experience is an excellent, if harsh, teacher. When we're speaking of one woman or one family, that's tragic enough, but with the president and vice-president we're talking an entire country, and perhaps the world. My assessment to this day is that the average American has absolutely NO IDEA what we're dealing with these two in the two highest offices in the land. Wake up, ladies, and PAY ATTENTION, close attention, to the people running for public office. And while you're at it, do the same with your men, too.
Cut the woman some sack... her ex-boyfriend managed to allegedly scam multi-millionaire businessmen, for crying out loud!
"Maybe, Anne Hathaway, shouldn't feel so badly after all."
Uhh ya maybe she shouldn't. Especially since her tastes/choices in men doesn't seem to be much better than the average American woman anyway. Let's not cast stones.
When the money went away, she went away. Now let's see if she trades up!
Who says she got "conned"? She enjoyed the benefits of his ill-begotten money, and the second she realized the lifestyle was about to disappear, she dumped him. True love, indeed.
"And if a woman can "play" as empowered a role as Agent 99 — and I'm not kidding, 99 is a very impressive chick — how can she be so disempowered in her personal life?"
Because she's an actress and her job is act as she is directed to. Duh!
"But Hathaway can take some comfort in the fact that she is not alone — this has been quite the season of smart, successful women getting conned by the men they thought were princes."
He's accused of misusing his investors' money. Do we know for a fact that he misused any of hers? Don't make her out to be a victim until it's proven that she really is one.
"She didn't have time to question her lover's business dealings."
That's right. She's got a successful career of her own to deal with. And could it be that she just wasn't interested in his business dealings? Maybe all she wanted was to just have fun with her rich Italian boyfriend.
Wow, the advantages of being a white young starlet. She makes millions but is just so naive and picks bad men. Anne Hathaway had no problem flying private jets and enjoying a compatible lifestyle with a guy whom people screamed a long time ago was shady.
I wonder if Nia Long, Sanaa Lathan or Thandie Newton would be given such a big shoulder to cry on, or get tipped off by the FBI ahead of time that they were going to arrest their boyfriend. Actually the compassion that Anne Hathaway is getting for sticking by a guy as long as she did, who allegedly defrauded the Vatican, kinda pisses me off. Now she'll make millions either writing a book or giving exclusive interviews playing the victim.
Wasn't there a story yesterday that the mistresses of the corrupt Chinese government officials are the ones who gave the info to the cops that they didn't have? Of course Anne and her boyfriend never pillow talked. Poor Anne...
Well, the gossip on them is that he was her beard. So maybe he was useful enough while he had plenty of money and not being investigated, but now he's a liability. That's the chatter!
The guy had, or appeared to have, lots of money.
There you go.
I've yet to meet the modern woman who doesn't yearn for the mate with higher-than-average earning potential.
If she needs a shoulder to cry on, I'm available and can be reached through the Huffington Post.
I'd date Anne in a nano second. I'd be quite a few steps up from her former boyfriend.
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