When she returns to the stage, dressed all in white, it is with a message of gratitude for the sold-out crowd. You guys have stuck it out for so long, since I was not even a teenager yet,” Duff, now 38, says. Her song “Anywhere But Here,” which soundtracks the end of her 2004 film A Cinderella Story, begins to play. In the audience I stand between two of my longtime best friends, Cortney, who I’ve known since college, and Kristin, who lived down the street when we were kids. I glance between them to gauge their reactions: Cortney, a single tear rolling down her cheek; Kristin, grinning and already dancing.