# Remember this made for TV movie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [February 10, 2023, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-this-made-for-tv-movie/979566 "2023-02-10T04:07:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2023, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-this-made-for-tv-movie/979566/1 "2023-02-10T04:07:18Z")
Just a weird memory that popped up. A woman (played by a thin lipped soap actress) needs one of her lips fixed for reasons. So the docs decide to rebuild using vaginal tissue. The movie generated a smidge of controversy. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2023, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-this-made-for-tv-movie/979566/2 "2023-02-10T04:32:55Z")
I remember A movie, because it was based on a story in Des Moines, where I grew up, and the woman later married a teacher at my high school (although I never had him as a student). She was severely disfigured in a car accident, and this was indeed done to rebuild her facial lips. The labia minora can be used because they’re equally sensitive, and do not lubricate like the vagina itself does. What was REALLY controversial was that she MARRIED THE SURGEON after her treatments were finished. That marriage didn’t last long, and she married the teacher later on. I think this is it; the picture is of her when the book that inspired the movie was published. > **[Why Me? (TV Movie 1984) - Plot - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088398/plotsummary/)** > > Why Me? (TV Movie 1984) - Plot summary, synopsis, and more... In the late 1980s, I worked with a woman whose son was born with a cleft lip and palate, and Dr. Stallings was his surgeon. After a while, she realized that she’d never received a bill from him, and asked him about it. He told her, “For people like your son, my fee is whatever your insurance pays. I make enough money from nose jobs, breast augmentations, etc. that for people who need surgery, it’s just not right to charge extra for that kind of thing.” Sadly, he died by suicide a few years later. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2023, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-this-made-for-tv-movie/979566/3 "2023-02-10T04:37:07Z")
Here’s Dr. Stallings’ [findagrave.com](http://findagrave.com) page. I hadn’t know that he had CFS; that disorder has a very high suicide rate. > **[Dr James O Stallings III (1938-1991) - Find a...](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/16815027/james-o-stallings)** > > A nationally known plastic surgeon. He was portayed in the 1984 T.V. movie Why Me? by Armand Assante. The movie tells the story of how he saved the life of a patient named Leola Mae Harmon, who's face was badly disfigured in an auto accident. They... And hers. > **[Leola Mae Harmon Swihart (1945-1999) - Find a...](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/91930385/leola-mae-swihart)** > > Was in a disfiguring accident that occured in November 1968 and was the basis of her 1982 book 'Why Me?'. It took 20 operations to reconstruct her face. Four new procedures were used. She fell in love with her surgeon Dr James O Stallings, and they... ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2023, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-this-made-for-tv-movie/979566/4 "2023-02-10T20:39:15Z")
That was also a plotline on an episode of Nip/Tuck (season 2, episode 6 “Bobbi Broderick”).