Queer Eye For The Straight Guy
 

I'm so jealous of the folks in the States who are getting this new show. I keep telling my hubby that he needs a "make-better", and I think if he could see this show he'd actually consent to it. Has anyone seen it? Is it any good?

Oh, and the spots are here: http://www.bravotv.com/Queer_Eye_for_the_Straight_Guy/

Straight guys remade -- by 'Queer Eye'
New Bravo show offers schlumpy men a 'make-better'

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) --Want help in transforming a schlub of a husband or boyfriend into one who's attractive and socially adept?

Get the right man for the job -- the right gay man. That's the premise of a Bravo series in which style-challenged straight men are overhauled by experts whose credentials include being gay.

"Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," debuting 10 p.m. EDT Tuesday, July 15, with two back-to-back hours, is a clever and entertaining twist on the newly popular makeover shows. It even manages to impart a message.

Straight and gay men "are just guys, and they want to feel good about themselves," said David Collins, the series' creator. "We all do."

In "Queer Eye," gay and straight men forge a new kind of brotherhood, one cemented by properly applied hair gel.

Gays, at least the ones featured in the series, are leagues ahead in knowing how to achieve lifestyle perfection. The straight men are a group of sad sacks in need of rehab, Eliza Doolittles one and all.

They don't know how to dress or groom themselves properly, make their homes comfortable or entertain for business or family.

"Let's talk about the shaving, or lack thereof," one "Queer Eye" experts tells a stubbly subject. "Shaving is one of the simple things you can do to make it look like you've given some thought to your look."

Family members are far less diplomatic.

"He looks like a clown," a wife says in lamenting her unkempt spouse.

A second gay-themed series arrives on Bravo on July 29. In "Boy Meets Boy," a gay leading man will choose from 15 potential mates -- with the twist that some are actually heterosexual.
Professional credentials

Bravo has run gay-themed programming in the past, including last summer's documentary series on same-sex weddings and, for several years, the "Out of the Closet" film festival.

While there is some stereotyping at work in "Queer Eye," Collins emphasizes that each of the style mavens -- dubbed the "fab five" -- stands on their professional credentials and not their sexual orientation.

"We were very specific about the fact that just because you're gay doesn't give you style, taste and class," Collins said. "Just because you get your gay card doesn't mean you know how to arrange flowers."

The pros include food and wine connoisseur Ted Allen, co-author of Esquire magazine's "Things a Man Should Know" column, and Thom Filicia, named by House Beautiful magazine as one of America's top designers. Culture maven Jai Rodriguez, "grooming guru" Kyan Douglas and fashion sage Carson Kressley round out the advisory board.

Kressley is a hoot. "You put a living room where a crack den used to be," he exclaims, lauding a colleague's decorating makeover of an apartment. When Kressley hears that a menu includes an expensive kind of ham, he quips: "I love a good designer meat."

The experts, however, are quite serious about helping their straight charges look, feel and live better. In the first episode, they get a scruffy artist ready for a gallery exhibit. The second hour features a scruffy husband -- there's a trend here -- and his home getting overhauled in preparation for the wife's birthday.

The series, said to be the first to promote same-sex relationships, has already drawn criticism from the Washington-based Traditional Values Coalition. It was asking its 43,000 member churches to protest it.
'We're hoping to break down some walls'

The idea for the series came to Collins while gallery-hopping one day in Boston. He overheard a woman comparing her spouse, unfavorably, to a trio of sharp-looking gay men.

The three men heard too, and intervened to offer constructive criticism, Collins recounted. "As I left with my buddy, I jokingly said, 'That was kind of the queer eye for the straight guy.' These guys swooped in there and helped this man out." (See sidebar.)

Collins marched into Scout Productions, the film and TV company which he co-founded, and suggested that a show had been born. Collins, who's gay, enlisted a straight colleague, David Metzler, to join in producing it for Bravo.

The "straight guy, gay guy perspective" is at the heart of the show, Collins said. "We're hoping to break down some walls here."

In what turned out to be a lucky break, Bravo was bought by NBC after the channel picked up "Queer Eye" -- and Jeff Gaspin, the NBC executive vice whose responsibilities include the cable channel, was enthusiastic about the series.

That support has translated into on-air NBC promotions as well as high-profile billboards touting "Queer Eye" in New York's Times Square and on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

Like NBC's gay-themed sitcom "Will & Grace," the Bravo series is groundbreaking, said Gaspin. "We're taking a common genre, the makeover show, and we're being really honest with it, we're having fun with it."

Men aren't usually attracted to makeover programs but Gaspin thinks "Queer Eye" has a chance to pull them in. He's not promising they'll take advantage of the tips.

Many American men do seem to have an aversion to incorporating style in their lives, Collins said, and they're missing out.

"One thing the show is saying is if you look better, if you feel better, it's part of overall confidence-building," he said. "Take the time to have a manicure, a shave, cut your hair, get some highlights. It doesn't make you gay."

Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/....ap/index.html

Makeover show
 

This was mentioned in the metrosexual article that I posted a couple of weeks ago. I think I'm going to watch it because I want to see the guys' attitudes toward a makeover.
:p

I cannot wait to see an episode of this show!!!! Some of my best guy friends are gay and they help me pick out clothes all the time, so I'm sure this is bound to be a hoot-n-a-half!

I've been seeing the promos for this, and I can't wait to watch it. It loks like its going to be a fun show. :)

Sweet thing, BRAVO *IS* Canadian! We will be getting it!!!!

I really want to see this! I'm not sure if we get Bravo, though :(

Bravo is the station in Canada who carries the HBO programs (like Sex and the City...we don't have HBO in Canada, so we get SATC on Bravo).

So, if you see something in Canada that you like and it's on Bravo, it's probably on HBO in America (but not necessarily so don't quote me on that).

Similarly, Canada has Showcase, America has Showtime. Same thing.

Re: Queer Eye For The Straight Guy
 

I've been teasing Pat for weeks that I'm going to nominate him for this show.

The problem is--he WANTS to be nominated to get some hard-core fashion advice.

Gay? Who cares? As long as they know their sh*t in the clothing store. :p

Adrienne (PNAM-2003)
:D

I am taping it tomorrow night! :D

Not according to their website. Bravo Canada and Bravo US are two different entities. Bravo US is owned by NBC.

Re: Re: Queer Eye For The Straight Guy
 

This is so funny, because I want to be nominated for "What Not To Wear"! As much as I hate Wayne, I would give anything to go on that show. After losing so much weight, I'm hopeless about fashion. I don't know what skinny people wear. :D

This is a bad idea. Stereotyping is bad. If you're going to give a man a makeover, do it. There is no reason to make this into a gay/straight issue.

I don't think they are making it a gay/straight issue. Okay, well maybe a little - but the show's creators and designers are saying that what they aim to prove is that gay men and straight men have a lot in common - they are all men who care about looking good.

I don't buy it....they say that the five men were picked based on their credentials and not their sexuality, but every other aspect of this shows protrays the "schlumpy" style-less straight guy and the fashionable queer.

It's bad enough that gay men are still killed just for who they are....and though this show seems to want to celebrate gayness in some way, it would be much better to do it in a way that didn't harp on the stereotype of gay men being fashion designers and interior decorators, as though that's all gay men are good for.

You have a point there, dardenr. But I also think it's something to be celebrated that five accomplished men - who happen to be gay - are comfortable enough in their sexuality to be out on nationwide TV. Given that gay men (and lesbians) can and are still baited, beaten, and maligned for who they are and who they love, the fact that these five guys are out, proud, and on a mission to make the world a better place, one man at a time (:D), says a lot about how far we've come as a society.