There's an imaginary Mandy Moore career, picking up somewhere around the release of American Dreamz, the 2006 box office disaster where she portrayed a unstable contestant on a pseudo-American Idol. She was 22. This is after The Mandy Moore Show on MTV, after Neutrogena, after four albums and a Greatest Hits, after starring as a minister's daughter and the president's daughter, back-to-back. American Dreamz is where we lost her, where her career-trajectory stopped aiming higher than herself. Then there she was last night, picking up where she left off. She was happy and we were happy to see her. You can imagine her last five years differently, somewhere besides appearing on Scrubs, but good times or bad, last night center stage felt like where she belongs. Welcome back, your star still shines. Our tribute slideshow to tragic Mandy, after the jump.
All those days watching from the window
All those years outside looking in
All that time never even knowing
And at last, I see the light
And it's like the fog has lifted
And it’s like the sky is new
And it’s warm and real and bright
And the world has somehow shifted
All at once everything looks different
Now I'm here, blinking in the starlight
Now I'm here, suddenly I see
Standing here, it's all so clear
I'm where I'm meant to be