A $30-an-hour friend?

Are friends rentable? That's what the minds behind rentafriend.com are banking on. The service, modelled on businesses already popular in Japan and other parts of Asia, allows lonely individuals to peruse and select "friends" from a list of profiles sorted by zip code. These strictly platonic companions are paid between $10-$150 hourly for their services, averaging $20-$50. While the idea of renting a friend might seem bizarre to some, social scientists say the service might actually be beneficial. "It may in fact help people meet others and get back into circulation," John T. Cacioppo, the author of Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Interaction, told the Associated Press. "If it's used as a substitute for meaningful face-to-face relationships, it's not going to work." See a news report about rentafriend.com here: