Stars lined up on the night of Sept. 13 at NeueHouse Hollywood when actress Anna Faris interviewed Natasha Sizlo, a real estate agent at The Agency, about her new magical memoir, All signs point to Paris: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Destiny (Mariner books, $28.99). The two have a lot in common (Faris’ husband, cinematographer Michael Barrett, is Sizlo’s ex-husband) and spoke candidly about love, growth and the beauty of a blended family.
Mariner books
Sizlo’s book follows her experiences navigating grief and lost love — including her divorce, her father’s death, and a passionate romance followed by heartbreak as reality set in — and how she found her way to hope thanks to a life-changing astrological reading, which her suggested real soul mate could be found in Paris.
The astrologer Stephanie Jourdan, who guided her on her journey and who identified Sizlo’s “destination point,” which she poetically discovered should tell a story, was present at the conversation. Just like Sizlo’s best friend, who gave her the birth chart for her birthday.
Faris, whose first impression of Sizlo was that she was “intimidating, glamorous, totally fit and hysterical,” began the evening and asked the author, a self-proclaimed former cynic, where her sense of romance came from.
“I was a late bloomer with love,” Sizlo said, adding that her parents raised her on old, romantic stories like The Story of Philadelphia and Sabrina, which made her fall in love with familiar tropes such as grand gestures, the damsel rescued and happily ever after. “But many of these stories don’t serve us.”
Faris, twice divorced (including from Chris Pratt) and now happily married, insisted on the concept of closure. “We seek and long for it, but rarely get it,” she offered, asking the audience whether they agreed or not. After both breakups, “I felt strange to myself,” Faris said, noting that Sizlo found her true self in the wake of a heartbreak. “You clung to hope and optimism.”
Thanks to NeueHouse
“I’ve learned that sadness is love,” Sizlo replied. “And the pain after a relationship is also love.”
During the conversation, Sizlo shared stories (present in the book) of her eventual journey to Paris, along with her sister and best friend, in search of true love: the posters she put up in the city, the Instagram account with which she targeted ads for people who meet her conditions (having November 2, 1968 as their birthday, based on her map reading), her experiences with translating messages by Google on French Tinder.
Thanks to Anita Pocsik
Faris – who is the next star in the sister comedy The estate opposite Toni Collette – Sizlo’s sister, Tara, called to join them on stage and asked her what she thought of the whole trip. Lovingly and wistfully, she said, “We were looking for signs and they were there.”
“For anyone who doesn’t have a sister, I hope this book is like a sister to them,” Sizlo said, explaining how difficult it was to get through the last two weeks of their father’s life together.
Sizlo also gushed about Faris all evening and started the conversation by telling her ex-husband’s new husband, “I’m so grateful to have you in my life and to have you in my book.” The feelings are mutual; during the couple’s chat, Faris complimented Sizlo on her upbringing, her writing, her success as a real estate agent, and more. (The actress is the stepmother of Sizlo’s two children with Barrett.)
Fittingly, Jourdan, the astrologer, helped close the night by superimposing Sizlo and Faris’ birth charts and determining where they connect and align. She discovered that their friendship is very important to both their lives and that Sizlo’s book may be less about seeking romantic love, but more about love for yourself, for a sister, for a father and for friends.
Sizlo closed the intimate evening with a mysterious but juicy spoiler that there is “exciting news on the horizon” about adapting her memoir to the screen.