(UPI) – Australian actor Hugh Jackman has been named People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive for 2008.

The 40-year-old film star has played superhero Wolverine in the "X-Men" trilogy and won a Tony Award for his work in the stage musical "The Boy From Oz." He will next be seen opposite Nicole Kidman in the big-screen epic "Australia."

Kidman said she thinks Jackman, a married father of two, is a good choice for People's highest honor.

"Women's jaws drop when Hugh walks into a room," she told the magazine. "Hugh is tough and romantic at the same time. Australian men are a different breed. They're rugged and they sweat."

Deborra-Lee Furness, Jackman's wife of 12 years, said the actor may have a "body of doom," but insists she likes "what's inside."

Asked what his wife's reaction was when she heard he had been declared People's 2008 Sexiest Man Alive, Jackman recalled: "God bless her, she said, 'I could've told them that years ago!' And then she said, 'Obviously, Brad wasn't available this year.' And I said, 'That was a joke, right?'"

Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Matt Damon are some of People's previous Sexiest Man Alive title-holders.