Actor Hugh Jackman attends The Museum of Modern Art Film Benefit honoring Baz Luhrmann in New York last week. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, file)
Recalling Furness' reaction, Jackman says: "God bless her, she said, 'I could've told them that years ago! And then she said, 'Obviously Brad (Pitt) wasn't available this year.' And I said, 'That was a joke, right?'"
[comment caption=Do you think Hugh is the sexiest man alive?]The magazine's executive editor, Jess Cagle, said yesterday on NBC's Today show that Jackman is a "surprising choice," but he'd been on the editors' minds "for a long time and it seemed like this was the year to do him."
Cagle pointed out that not only is Jackman's career at its peak, with the X-Men movies and his upcoming epic with Nicole Kidman Australia, but he's "built like a tank."