Low Pay For The Queer Guys

SEPTEMBER 11--The "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" guys may be the hottest things on TV, but you'd never know it from their paychecks.

That's because Fab 5 members are only getting $3000 per episode during the show's first year, according to contracts signed months before the Bravo program's July debut. And the show's stars, who locked themselves into six consecutive one-year options, will be getting annual raises of just five percent, which works out to $3150 per episode next season and $3307.50 the following year.

The "Queer Eye" deals are also virtually perk-free. For instance, if cast members have to travel, they'll be flying coach. And while given a relatively small piece of merchandising proceeds, the show's stars will not have their voice and/or likeness used to sell "firearms, alcoholic beverages, tobacco, lotteries, gambling products, intimate personal hygiene products, medication, and/or intimate apparel."

The "Queer Eye" quintet's combined $15,000 salary this year is quite a bargain when compared to the heftier sums paid to ensemble players like Lara Flynn Boyle, let alone seven-figure superstars like Ray Romano or Kelsey Grammer. Boyle earned about $45,000 per episode during last year's season of "The Practice," according to the six-year deal she inked in 1997 with producer David E. Kelley.

Here you'll find the standard "Queer Eye" deal memorandum, a copy of which just surfaced in connection with a lawsuit brought by original cast member Blair Boone. (7 pages)