I'm on a shopping trip in LA with Carson Cressley - the quick-witted blond from Living TV's enormously popular makeover show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy - and he's drowning in fans. A pregnant woman promises she'll name her baby after him; a male shop assistant wants to know if he's wearing his tie-as-a-belt the right way; a young girl almost faints with excitement when he poses for a picture.

"This happens all the time and I love it," he grins, waving at another fan screaming from a passing car. "People ask me if it's intrusive, but I think I have the best job in the world. I go shopping with other people's credit cards, and then on top of it all people come up and tell me I'm doing a great job. What's not to love?"

In America, Queer Eye isn't merely a popular TV show; it's a national phenomenon. Carson, a former fashion director for Ralph Lauren, and the rest of the Fab Five have been credited with not just styling up the nation's fashion-free menfolk, but bridging a gap between the straight and gay worlds, and becoming the country's unofficial ambassadors for gay culture along the way.

"I thought I was changing underwear, not attitudes," he laughs. "It's been quite a surprise. I had no idea the acceptance would be so widespread. And so aggressive. I'll be in an airport and I'll have women throw their husbands at me and say 'will you do my husband?'. I'm like, 'honey, be careful what you ask for'.

"Our country is painted to be really conservative, but I have middle-American families coming up to me and saying 'our cousin is gay and it was hard for us to talk about it and your show has helped open a dialogue'. How great is that?"

Carson knows a thing or two about the problems of coming out to a middle-American family. He grew up in industrial Allentown, Pennsylvania - "the Birmingham of America" he quips - and always knew he wasn't quite like the other boys.

"I was the first kid in the fourth grade to have Calvin Klein jeans," he remembers. "My one arch enemy was Nancy Kalp. Her family owned the local newspaper and she would always get the cool designer clothes before I would and I just beat her by the skin of my teeth in getting the Calvins before she did."

Having a glamorous former Miss Milkmaid beauty queen for a mother helped shape the young Carson's tastes.

"She was always very well turned out," he says with pride. "I've never seen her with wet hair in my entire life. It was always washed and set and she would sleep with paper towels wrapped around it between the days of getting it washed and set to keep it perfect. That was a huge influence.

"Her big sport was going shopping and it became my big sport, and I loved clothes. I can remember exactly what I wore on my first day of kindergarten; it was a navy turtleneck and blue chequered pants and sport coat."

Unfortunately, the other kids weren't quite so fashion savvy, and not particularly impressed either.

"When puberty kicked in things got real ugly real quick," he says. "I got knocked around and threatened and picked on in gym class and thrown in the showers. In the 8th grade there was this kid who sat beside me and every morning he would punch me on the arm as hard as he could and then he would threaten me, saying 'I'm going to kick your ass today'. I remember being so nervous about going to school that I would literally go into the boy's locker room and puke every morning.

"But I look at it as a blessing, because getting hung up on lockers and getting beat up in the back of the bus made me think 'how am I going to get people to like me? How am I going to disarm them? What's my defence mechanism going to be?' It naturally just emerged as being funny. When people are laughing they're not picking on you and they're not beating you up and they're not threatening you. They're laughing. It worked and I became the class clown: it was like 'wow, I've found a way to defend myself without having to work out!"

With his classmates conquered, the next hurdle was revealing to his parents that he was gay.

"I was born in 1969 and by the time I was five I had a crush on the Six Million Dollar Man. So I kind of knew I was gay. I tried to tell my parents but they just said it was a phase. What may be a shock to your readers to learn is that I really came out to my family the week before the show premiered. I had to call them and say 'so there's going to be this TV show, and you might see some ads for it, and it has kind of a funny name'. I made it a point to go home one weekend and I told them in the car in a pouring down rainstorm, because I knew my mum couldn't freak out too much or she'd crash. But then she was like, 'oh God, we already knew'.

"Plus it turned out to be very handy coming out on national TV, because there was no need for an email - you can really let all the cousins know in one go. I knew in my heart that my parents loved me and would be fine with it, but I was worried what their 65-year-old bingo-playing friends would say. And you know what? Two days after the first show aired, instead of them being 'wow, oh sorry your kid's gay', my mum's friends from the beauty parlour were like 'where did Carson get that belt buckle?'. Fashion builds bridges, people."

And opens doors too. Outside of Queer Eye, Carson's in hot demand as an awards host, fashion pundit and stylist, most recently styling 90s boy band Hanson for a Rolling Stone fashion shoot, and the cast of Will & Grace for Vanity Fair. Later tonight he's off to meet Barbra Streisand - "that's like going to meet Jesus" - plus he's been getting close and personal with Kylie.

"I love Kylie," he says. "All of us love her so much she came and did a cameo on the show, and we were instantly besties - I was carrying her around like a little baby. She's fantastic. Beyond nice. And I think her style's great - she's endured. She's the Madonna of Australia. She's a little tiny peanut. Did I restyle her? Oh no. She was ready to go. You can drive her right off the lot."

With Queer Eye still climbing the TV ratings charts, and successful spin-off soundtrack CDs and books helping to ramp up the Fab Five's popularity, Carson could be holding onto his position as the unofficial Queen of America for some time to come. Which leaves just one problem: finding his own King.

"I'm still painfully alone - do you know anyone?" he asks, only half-joking. "Put the word out, will you. I do want a relationship. When your life is so crazy it's nice to have someone to come home to. But when this happens and everyone knows you, you can't tell whether people are flirting with you or not. I assume they're just looking for fashion advice.

"Who knows, though maybe these photos will help me get a hot British boyfriend."


Chris Evans
Who is this Chris Evans? He used to host youth television shows? That sounds sketchy. He was very popular? Then what happened? Did he go absolutely insane and started dressing like this? Obviously he's at the airport, which is traumatic for all of us, but that shirt doesn't make things any better. And generally it's a straight from a mental health care facility kind of look. Is he straight? Oh. OK"

Chris Martin
Is he the guy from Coldplay? Well first of all, he's a hottie. So I'm already on his side. Again, at the airport – the airport brings out the worst in everybody. Exercise and airports. I think if Gwyneth's with him he's doing something right.

Frank Skinner
In a couple of these he looks like he's running from the law in some sort of witness relocation program. But the silky suit looks good - he's working the Graham Norton sharkskin suit thing. The jeans though are like a cheap hotel - no ballroom. He could use some work.

Jude Law
I'd like to make him over, but not because he needs it. I'd just like to be in the dressing room with him. He's hot. On fire. And he always has great style. He can work the jean/blazer LA thing, the rock and roll thing, and he cleans up quite nicely. And he's British. Give me your tired, your weak and your Jude Laws.

Jonathan Ross
Oh my God! Is this at the Batman premiere and he's going as The Joker? There's no excuse for the yellow jumpsuit, for this kind of behaviour. He looks like a gay superhero. The wife is bodacious though, a Gwen Stefani type. The red suit is bad. This guy needs some serious szhooszhing.

Johnny Vegas
Are you sure he's straight? Oh God. Look at the floral shirt. I like floral patterns, sure, but on a case-by-case basis. He's working that whole homeless chic thing. Everyone's helpable though; there are no lost causes. But for him I'd need a Ridilin Smoothie so I could focus, then I'd need a lot of time. Are you sure he's straight?