Partying with Fab 5 reveals multi-media empire is imminent.

It's a bit daunting for a straight guy reasonably confident of his own good fashion and grooming sense to be thrust beneath the merciless glare of the Queer Eye. A last-minute dash across the six Manhattan city blocks from my hotel to a press conference at the Avalon nightclub heralding a new book, a new soundtrack album and a new TV season for the Queer Eye For The Straight Guy gang is, thus, slowed on several occasions by hasty self-examination in mirrored windows along the way.

The G-Sus zip-up skater jacket is reasonably flashy and au courant, for sure, but will these celebrated arbiters of taste frown upon the Snapcase concert T-shirt? It picks out the red in my toque nicely, but then, the toque should probably come off, shouldn't it? What about the hair beneath, though? I mean, I just got off a plane. I'm not at my best. I haven't had time to shave or shower, let alone style ...

Fortunately, when the Queer Eye "Fab Five" - fashion diva Carson Kressley, grooming guru Kyan Douglas, kitchen whiz Ted Allen, design expert Thom Filicia and culture monitor Jai Rodriguez - finally materialize nearly an hour after the appointed time ("This isn't fashionable," comments a gruff New York soundman. "This is rude"), they prove as warm and personable in person as they do on their good-hearted guerilla-makeover series.

Damn funny, too; any bad feeling amongst the assembled journalists over the wait evaporates in giggles as the Queer Eye cast erupts into a non-stop barrage of droll repartee, cheeky double entendres and such dry Carson-isms as "Just because you have your hair highlighted doesn't mean you're gay. If you highlight other people's hair, that means you're gay." They are a charming, quick-witted lot indeed, and their obvious, contagious chemistry is why Queer Eye For The Straight Guy surged into its second season on U.S. cable this past Tuesday a far greater success story than anyone involved in the show dreamed possible.

This month, the Queer Eye concept has expanded to include a book, The Fab 5's Guide To Looking Better, Cooking Better, Dressing Better, Behaving Better and Living Better, and a soundtrack CD entitled What's That Sound? featuring Elton John, Sting, Basement Jaxx, Duran Duran, Toronto's Widelife (who perform the show's theme, "All Things (Just Keep Getting Better)" with singer Simone Denny) and Queer Eye favourite Kylie Minogue.

Suddenly, Queer Eye - which, Rodriguez says, the group assumed would be "a small, fun thing to do for a summer" - seems poised to spawn its own Wu Tang Clan-like multi-media empire. "Next, we'll be starting a financial-service division," quips Allen after the press conference.

The five Queer Eye personalities, all of whom seem to delight in taking a half-camp, half-earnest approach to the stereotype of the well-groomed, effortlessly cultured gay man, are undisputably the key to the show's popularity. One doesn't have to be gay or particularly interested in wardrobe tips and home decor to appreciate the Wilde-worthy barbs tossed back and forth while the lads rescue some hapless schlub - most of them "turned in by their wives and girlfriends," according to Allen - from his hopeless inability to care for himself.

Remarkably, while the group comes off like a pack of old friends, the Fab Five was actually selected during lengthy auditions from more than 500 Queer Eye hopefuls. "They kept pulling in different combinations of five people to see how they got along," recalls Allen. "I didn't realize exactly what they were doing until we'd been on the show for a while and I realized that was the most important thing to the producers how the chemistry worked between the five of us. It obviously wasn't looks."

"Your background experience counted, but it was also a lot about personality," adds Rodriguez. "They couldn't have strident forces on the show because then you'd have catty bitches yelling at each other all the time and that wasn't what the show was about. They wanted people who were generally good-spirited and knew a lot about their respective fields."

Rodriguez, an actor and singer (he has an album coming out in the summer) 10 years younger than his 30-something counterparts, was the final addition to the Queer Eye cast. He recalls his audition culminating in an interview before "a board" of the show's creators and producers conducted "with Ted on my left and Carson on my right," cutting up every word that came out of his mouth. "I called my agent and said 'I did not book this. Thanks for trying, but I was so out of my league.'"

"We were merciless," concedes Allen. "Carson and I were really kind of 'on' that day and we were just relentless, and Jai held his own so well."

Beneath the pointed criticisms and witticisms heaped upon their subjects, however, the Queer Eye crew's mission is a benevolent one. Their advice is sound enough, Allen says, that "the majority of the people we've worked with have stuck with the program." And many of the straight guys put through the ringer on the show keep in friendly contact with their saviours, asking for further advice and even extending the occasional dinner-party invite.

The show's sound reputation has, not surprisingly, made the hunt for fresh grist for the Queer Eye mill much easier now. "The makeovers tend to be really dramatic and a lot of really useful information is being delivered on the show as well as comedy," offers Rodriguez. "So you're being entertained, you're learning and you're identifying with someone on the show. The first season was really difficult to cast because no one wanted to be affiliated with it. Very few people were writing in saying 'I want to be a part of that Queer Eye show.' Now, we've exemplified that we can do great work and that we can actually do great work and they get thousands of letters. So now the casting guys are looking for people who really need the help."