An LA Friend is Different Than an Everywhere Else Friend

So says Nicholas Tabarrok:

In Los Angeles 'friend' can mean business associate, someone you know, someone you met once, a guy you've had a couple of email exchanges with....Truly, people never say "I know someone over at Warner Brothers" it's always "I have a friend at Warner Brothers". It's never "I know that director" it's "that director is a friend of mine". Upon my first brush with this practice it irked me as I saw it as fake and disingenuous. I assumed that people were bragging about who they knew and embellishing the truth. However over time I came to realize that that wasn't actually the case, at least not entirely. The word really has a different meaning here.

--Marginal Revolution: "Friends" in Hollywood

ALSO WORTH READING: Nicholas asks the same question I did, why all movie tickets cost the same price, regardless of how good the movie is or is expected to be. The MR commenters give a lot of theories.