Back waxing, boiling jockstraps, removing toe-jam... Just a few of the humiliations the five gay American makeover gurus from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy have heaped on their heterosexual victims on UK's Living TV. The American import has been such a huge hit that the channel has just launched a British version of this display of taunting, torturing and teasing. The five presenters do the teasing, while the male heterosexual volunteers do the trembling. And who wouldn't when one's most private privates are laid bare for all to see.

But while fans of gay TV and wannabe metrosexuals the country over are starting to get to know the British Fab Five, what do we know about the American originals - Carson Kressley (the fashionista), Kyan Douglas (the grooming guy), Ted Allen (the food and wine connoisseur), Thom Filicia (the design doctor) and Jai Rodriguez (the culture vulture)?

In America, they are the celebrities du jour, with Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Nicole Kidman, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher and Ben Affleck scratching each other's eyes out to be their new best friends. And they've got endorsements coming out of their well-stuffed closets. The Fab Five appear in their own American Express TV advertisements, and individually they are promoting everything from furniture and fashion to vodka and breath freshener. On top of their basic salaries for the series - which recently tripled - the boys receive appearance fees of up to [pounds sterling]75,000 a pop, have just sliced up a near [pounds sterling]1 million advance on the spin-off book, The Fab Five's Guide to Looking Better, Cooking Better, Dressing Better, Behaving Better, and Living Better, and have released a compilation CD of music from the programme.

For those who haven't caught on to the show, the formula is that the five homosexuals are presented with a straight guy - usually by his girlfriend - and they get to rip his life to shreds. His clothes, his demeanour, his hair, his furniture and his cooking are all targets. They introduce him to the delights of facials, tanning salons, coiffuring, gourmet food and fashion labels. Simultaneously, his flat is given a makeover. The show culminates in a special event, for example, the 'victim' proposing to his girlfriend. Meanwhile, the boys sit back and admire their handiwork via a hidden camera.

Although we find out absolutely everything there is to know about the straight man - even what's under his pillows - Carson, Kyan, Thom, Ted and Jai keep pretty quiet about their own private lives. We know about the fame, success, Hollywood friends, but not much else. That is, until now.

Take Carson, 34, the Blond One with the fluorescent attire, leathery skin and serpent's tongue. The fashion guru is the show's star in terms of humour. He has the caustic wit of a latter-day Dorothy Parker: 'Boxers are hot. And by boxers I mean guys who box, not the underwear. So get rid of 'em!'; 'Do you have bad credit or just bad taste?' His pithy one-liners have us laughing as much as his appearance and mannerisms. 'He looks like he was freeze-dried in 1978 and brought back to life as a stereotypical Seventies queen,' says Robert Bryan of The New York Times. But that hasn't stopped him landing quite a catch of late - CNN's anchorman, Anderson Cooper. Cooper, the son of fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt, has recently been voted one of New York's 100 best-dressed men, and last year was picked as one of the 20 most beautiful people to watch. The two seem very tight. At the Nautica show during February's NewYork Fashion Week - in front row seats, of course - the boys whispered and giggled throughout. Both are said to be deliriously happy.

It is a far cry from Carson's childhood in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He knew he was different to the other boys - and they certainly cottoned on when he took delivery of his first piece of couture at the age of four. When he was ten, he insisted on helping his sister buy her prom dress. "All the gowns were mint-green bridesmaids' dresses," he recalls. 'I said, "Let's go for something different." She wore a white tunic and ended up Prom Queen.' He had few friends. 'It was rough. It was lonely,' he says. 'My way to survive was to make people laugh.' But once in New York, Carson's life changed. He became a sought-after independent stylist and then, for many years, worked for Polo Ralph Lauren. Now, as well as his TV work, he interviews celebrities for Us Weekly magazine, and is paid [pounds sterling]300,000 a year for the privilege. Along with fashion and Cooper, Carson's other love is horses. He's an accomplished rider and was a member of the US World Cup Equestrian Team.

Then there is Kyan, 33. Or should we say Eddie. That's his real name, though according to gossip he's also gone by the stage name of Kyan Pepper - but only when he was a stripper in New Orleans. Now Kyan hangs out with Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher and says, 'Julianne Moore told me I was her favourite.' Kyan, the 'Hot One,' is also pretty good with the oneliners - 'Hey, I've found the culture. It's in the bottom of the toothbrush holder' - when he's not primping, preening and occasionally stripping down to his underwear in front of the camera.

Until recently, he was dating actor Robert Gant, who stars in the American version of Queer as Folk. Gant, who'd made a career of playing fathers and husbands, very publicly came out soon after getting the part. The two met in September at a pre-Emmy awards party and were instantly smitten. They holed up in a corner of the VIP lounge, ignored everyone else and left in the same car. Kyan later admitted: 'There is someone, but it is kind of a long-distance thing.' Then Gant confessed: 'Kyan is an amazing guy. We're friends and very much enjoying getting to know each other.' That was back in January. By February, they had obviously gotten to know each other too well - and the romance was over.

Originally from Miami, Florida, Kyan came out to his parents when he was 20, and moved to New Orleans a few years later. There, as well as the stripping, he attended Loyola University and the Blue Cliff School of Massage Therapy. He also worked at the Louisiana Pizza Kitchen. His time in the city was marred by the horrific murders, in 1996, of three of his work colleagues, who were shot dead by armed robbers. Douglas wasn't working at the pizzeria that day, but the trauma of the killings was one of the reasons he moved to New York. Once there, he studied at the Aveda Institute, specialising in men's skincare, and worked as a colourist at a posh SoHo hairdressers.

Recently, his starry attitude has rubbed up some of the press the wrong way. A case in point was in the VIP area at the Von Dutch fashion launch in Los Angeles last year. 'Get the ****ing press out of here!' he screamed at reporters, before publicly lecturing them in front of a room packed with A-list celebs and media pundits. One scribe who observed the rant later wrote: 'Given Douglas's decidedly B-list status, we're surprised no one in the VIP area yelled at him to get out.'

At 26, Jai, the Baby One, is nearly a decade younger than his fellow gurus. His role as the cultural font is slightly more nebulous - he goes out and buys CDs, and he tends to be the butt of the others' jokes. But he gets his own back now and again. When it comes to his sex life, he claims he's had little luck since losing his virginity at 19. 'I can't get a date,' he says. 'I meet people who are too concerned with the show. I don't want to talk about work all the time. I'm looking for tall, in-shape Puerto Rican or Italian boys.' He was, however, spotted with James Getzlaff of Boy Meets Boy, an American gay dating show. The two were later seen together at a Broadway musical.

Jai grew up in Brentwood, New York state, and lived with his grandparents until he was 11. He came out to his parents - born-again Christians - when he was 17. At the time he was playing a drag queen in the Tony awardwinning musical Rent, on Broadway. "My parents wanted to come and see me in it," he says. 'I didn't want to come out, but I knew I had to tell them.' Jai is now a fixture on the New York social scene. As well as acting, he also performs a solo singing set in some of the city's hippest nightspots. He recently released a single, Love is Good, which became a club hit, and he has a CD coming out later this year.

Ted, 38, is the Nerdy One, yet he has a dry, subtle wit. When observing his makeover men on the hidden camera, he comes out with comments such as: 'He's working that room like a Kennedy.' He is also the only one of the five in a long-term relationship. He dates Barry Rice, a journalism professor at Chicago's Columbia College. But Ted's success has put strains on the relationship - Rice finds Ted's fame annoying. 'I haven't seen him very much lately,' says Rice. 'And everywhere we go together, people are always stopping us to talk or ask questions.' Ted came out to his boss when he was a cub reporter on a local Chicago newspaper. Fortified by a few drinks he said, 'You know, I think I'm gay. I don't know how the office is going to react.' They reacted well, and Ted went on to work as a food critic for the widely respected Chicago magazine. He is still a contributing editor there. He is also a contributing editor to American Esquire and co-writes a column called 'Things a Man Should Know'. There have been a number of spin-off books from this, including Things a Man Should Know About Sex and Things a Man Should Know About Marriage.

Then there is Thom - the Successful One. Thom owns his own interior design company - he was named one of the Top 100 American Designers by House Beautiful - and he fronts the adverts for furniture store Pier 1 Imports. At 34, he is the one who works the hardest in the show, often having to transform a pigsty into something sleek and modern in less than three days. And he approaches his job with witty bitchiness - 'My God, it's like a Toys R Us crack den,' he said on entering one flat.

Sadly, he claims the rigours of his role mean he has no time for a love life. 'It's almost non-existent,' he says. However, he was recently spotted at the infamous gay White Party in Miami where he was showered with attention - and enjoyed every minute of it.

Thom grew up in Syracuse, New York state, in a very close-knit family and only came out to his parents after living in the city for a year. 'All through high school and college, I dated women,' he says. When his parents came to New York, he knew he had to tell them he was gay. 'It was one of the most stressful days of my life, but my mom was great and my father was really cool.' In fact, Thom only took the role in Queer Eye after discussing it with his family and checking they were OK with him 'coming out to the world'.

That is something each of the Fab Five has had to do.

They thought they would be working on a small production for a little-known American cable channel and that they'd be able to keep their private lives just that. But no such luck, I'm afraid, boys.

Please bear in mind this article is from a tabloid, and is based in part on gossip and reports from other tabloids and online. Don't take every word as gospel.