"She was just the girl next door and they were drawn just to her, " Anka said.

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Kim Luther, who sold Goody her home, remembered her fondly as "the girl next door, the normal girl".

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Lawson's world is populated by small-town folk with big hearts, men who fall for the girl next door and never forget her.

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Carrie Bradshaw has been described as a modern-day Cinderella, the girl next door, and the best friend we all wish we had on multiple occasions.

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What drama there is turns on whether Dre will recognize that his proper life partner is Sidney, who, in an earlier time, would have been written literally as the girl next door.

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Although they are much more likely than the girl next door to get divorced (35% have been divorced, versus 23% for the general population), they are also much less likely to get married in the first place.

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At director Penn's urging, the Los Angeles-raised Hirsch ("The Girl Next Door, " "Lords of Dogtown") stayed true to McCandless' spirit throughout filming, to the point of losing more than 40 pounds off his already slight, 5-foot-7-inch frame.

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Maybe she is more of the girl-next-door than she likes to think.

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The words of the questioning and thoughtfully realist girl next door have a way of finding an audience, even in the most unexpected of individuals.

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In a session this summer in the writers room, where a bookcase was lined with titles like "American Sniper, " the staff ignored a bowl of baby carrots and sucked lollipops instead. (They pilfer candy from the better-stocked Fox sitcom "New Girl, " whose writers work next door).

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