Leno gets makeover from gay stylists

NEW YORK -- "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" is turning its gaze toward Jay Leno.\nThe host of NBC's "The Tonight Show" will undergo a makeover at the hands of the "Fab 5" -- the five gay stylists who give a straight man a new look each week on the hit reality show.\nThey're scheduled to appear on Leno's late-night talk show Aug. 14 -- the same night NBC will re-air the second installment of the Bravo series. Then they'll come back the next night to show off the results of their work.\n"Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," which made its debut July 15, provides a twist on the newly popular makeover shows, while even managing to impart a message.\nStraight and gay men "are just guys, and they want to feel good about themselves," said David Collins, the series' creator. "We all do." \nThe show has set ratings milestones for Bravo and has been repeated on NBC. Last week, Comedy Central's Jon Stewart joked about it on "The Daily Show."\nIn what turned out to be a lucky break, Bravo was bought by U.S. NBC broadcast network 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.\nThat 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.\nLike 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."\nThe gay stylists 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.\nThe 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.\nThe 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."\nCollins 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.\nNext week, when the stylists head to "The Tonight Show", they will have their eyes on more than just a Leno makeover. The trade paper Variety reported Tuesday that Leno's set also will get a new look. The New York-based cast is expected to travel to Los Angeles next week to begin shopping for furniture and other fashionable goodies.