Me, and my siblings. :)
I was a prickly hedgehog if my parents tried to hug me, but I'd be curled up against my mom's side to read books if she sat on the couch and left space next to her. My brother and sister basically did the same thing.
My siblings and I basically just puppy-piled our way through movies and books... and actually still do, and I'm 32, married, and well-adjusted... *shrugs*
Socially, it's more acceptable for girls to casually touch (brush each other's hair, neck rubs, curl up on a chair, etc, etc...), so I don't know how much of the 'friends' advice is necessarily useful there - my brother had the advantage that he basically didn't give a shit if people called him gay (um, being 6'4 and a football player who comes from a progressive family with a queer sister will TOTALLY help with not giving a shit, but I highly encourage teaching kids that emotional vulnerability is not unmanly and that being gay is not a problem and that touching is not inherently gay, as a starting point). Um... emphasizing that not all cross-gender contact is inherently sexual (goes hand-in-hand with nice discussions on consent, yay parenting) and not making a big deal of cross-gender friendships would probably be a good idea - if the kid thinks that a need to be touched is inherently sexual, that seems like a good way to get into sexual activity that isn't necessarily what they want/are ready for, so helping to de-tangle that is key. (Also not pathologizing consensual/safe/happy sex if the participant is under 18 and everyone is happy about it...)