Thom Filicia and Jai Rodriguez have become household names (with Carson Kressley, Kyan Douglas and Ted Allen) due to the phenomenal success of their Bravo TV show, "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy."

The Fab 5, as the group is known, are busy promoting a new book, "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy: The Fab 5's Guide to Looking Better, Cooking Better, Behaving Better and Living Better," a CD-ROM of the same name and a CD, "Music From Queer Eye for the Straight Guy."

Two weeks ago in a banter-filled 15-minute phone conversation, Filicia and Rodriguez shared more personal things, namely, their coming-out stories, and their feelings about being the most recognized gay men in the world.

On being so recognizable:
Thom: "We can't walk through an airport without someone wanting us to tszuj them." (Pronounced something like "zhooz," Tszujing is a word co-opted by Carson, possibly of Yiddish origin, which means to finesse or tweak -- a sleeve, a collar, a shirt tuck-in.)
Jai: "It makes it very hard to date. People think we're going to critique every aspect of their lives."

Coming out:
Thom: "All through high school and college, I dated women. I had been in New York for a year and my parents were coming to visit, and I knew I had to tell them. I am the youngest of three boys and my parents had wanted a girl, so when I sat them down, I said, 'Mom, Dad, I've got good news and bad news. . . . ' It was one of the most stressful days of my life, but my mom was great and my father was really cool. We all went away that weekend to a family wedding in Massachusetts, and my mom did a reading from the Bible. It was about the beauty of love between a man and woman. She was crying as she read it, and everyone thought she was just moved by the passage, but my brothers (Jules and Jim) and I knew what she was thinking."

Jai: "I was in musical theater all through high school, but I also had a longtime girlfriend." Shortly after college, he landed the role as Angel, the drag queen, in "Rent" on Broadway. "My parents wanted to come see me in it, and I knew I had to tell them, but I did not want to come out."
Jai's Italian and Puerto Rican parents are born-again Christians, and he feared their reactions. He needn't have. They were accepting, but worried that he wouldn't find acceptance among society. "Our parents work very hard to make our lives charmed, and when there is any deviation from the plan, they worry," he said. "But because of the show's success and people they know are so accepting of me, they're happy."

On the show's popularity:
Thom: "I don't think we could have predicted it would take off the way it did. We weren't sure how people would receive us."
Jai: "It's a wonderful thing to be a part of, but it's not all glamour. We do sometimes clean toilets."