Dan, a 28-year-old aspiring Los Angeles actor, and some of his friends were flipping through a gay magazine earlier this year when an ad for a dating service called the Gay Millionaires Club caught their eye. The friends joked about how jaded they had become regarding the dating scene in West Hollywood, which they found to be filled with "celebrity wanna-bes" and "shallow gym bunnies."

And Dan, figuring he had little to lose, decided to check out the service, which promised to connect the right people with gay millionaires.

The application process was grueling. After submitting some initial information and a photo through the service's Web site, he underwent a lengthy in-person interview, in which he was asked detailed questions about past relationships, his personal life, his religious preferences, and whether appearance or personality was a priority when seeking a partner.

A few weeks later, Dan was set up on a date with a prospective millionaire partner at a posh Los Angeles restaurant "I thought it was for people who were desperate and could not find a date," Dan says. "I expected dogs in their 50s and 60s looking for a houseboy."

But Dan says to his surprise, he found himself seated across from a millionaire who turned out to be not much older than he was. He was not only extremely handsome, Dan says, but also charming and intelligent.

And after the first date the millionaire never telephoned Dan again.

"I thought I was going to be the one to make the decision, since I am the young one. I never considered the possibility I would not be good for him," Dan says. "I blew the date. I was so nervous, and I was chattering away."

The Gay Millionaires Club is just one of the latest variations in the craze started by TV's Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire? and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. But the club, which was founded in 2001 by Jill Kimmel-Hankoff, is no game. It's a real-life dating service for affluent gay men "who don't have the time or the desire" to find dates on their own," says Kimmel-Hankoff, who is straight.

It works like this: Any gay man can apply--at no charge--to meet one of Kimmel-Hankoffs nearly two dozen millionaires. She says about 5,000 men have sent in their pictures and online questionnaires. "My role here is really to separate the wheat from the chaff," she says. Gold diggers need not apply either, she adds: "[The millionaires] are paying me to be discerning in order to arrange the best possible matches."