Hagemashi Tai

You can chalk this one up under the "stranger than fiction" category, but if/when the series Dollhouse is shown in Japan, they can use the subtitle "based on a true story". It seems that a similar organization exists there in which people hire other people to pose as spouses, partners, etc. to avoid certain social embarrassments. Granted, the whole "memory implant" plot device isn't actually used, but at least they're halfway there.

The organization is called Hagemashi Tai (translated to "I want to cheer you up"). I cannot help but wonder if Joss read an article somewhere about this phenomenon and loosely based his show on it.

On the other hand, isn't this a standard episode plot of every sitcom ever made, in which a character has to pretend to be another character? In America, I'm aware that you can hire actors as characters for parties but not to this level of organization. Truth truly is stranger than fiction.