‘True Blood’s’ Joe Manganiello Howls Over Inclusion On People’s ‘Sexiest’ List

When “True Blood’s” super-stacked werewolf – Joe Manganiello – found out he was being added to the People’s 2010 Sexiest Man Alive club, he had two special ladies in his life to tell.

“I told Audra and the first thing she said was, ‘Don’t forget, I wash your underwear,’” Joe laughed while recounting to AccessHollywood.com how he broke the news to his fiancée, model and actress Audra Marie. “Then she gave me a big hug and told me how proud of me she was.”

Also pleased with the honor? Joe’s mother!

“I said, ‘ Go get People magazine this week.’” Joe said of how he broke the news to Mama Manganiello, back in his hometown of Pittsburgh. “She said ‘What for?’ And I said, ‘Well, you know, it’s the Sexiest Man Alive issue.’ And she screamed ‘Oh my God! You’re the Sexiest Man Alive?!’ And I went ‘No, no… I’m one of the guys.’”

People, which separated their “Sexiest Men” into different categories, picked Joe’s steamy photo – showing the star, dripping wet in a clingy T-shirt to lead the pack of their “Supernaturally Spectacular” chosen hunks, ahead of “Twilight Saga” star Alex Meraz and “Vampire Diaries’” chiseled-jaw hero Paul Wesley and his blue-eyed scene stealing co-star, Ian Somerhalder.

Joe admitted that he was honored by the magazine’s nod, another accolade in his blossoming career, which took off big time after he joined the cast of “True Blood” during the show’s third season.

“Everything that’s happened this past year, since the episodes have started airing, I mean, it’s been the same reaction; kind of like disbelief at the beginning and then like appreciation,” he said. “I presented at the MTV Video Music Awards… and I remember Chelsea Handler stopping in the middle of the show and saying all this stuff about me and my first thought was — I was just amazed that she knew who I was. So, there’s still an amount of shock that people even know who I am.”

While Joe is still getting used to all the things that come with being one of the hottest men on the hit HBO show, he’s also glowing from the joys of being engaged.

Joe cautioned though, that rumors about him – like one currently circulating the Web suggesting that he and Audra are planning to elope – are just that… rumors.

“There are people out there that are ridiculous. They print articles without quotes. They print articles without fact checking and some of these people — they’ve actually started printing things that they feel I psychically believe, which, I don’t know how you can get away with that,” he told Access of one of the downsides that’s come with his increasing profile.

“That article about eloping? I never talked to anybody,” he continued. “This just pops up and it says — and I think the wording was: ‘The pressure of being engaged is getting to Joe. He secretly wishes to elope.’ Like how does somebody know what I secretly wish? It’s just kind of absurd, but what are you going to do?”

Instead of focusing on combating every rumor, the “Sexiest Man” club member will be enjoying being engaged to Audra.

“Right now, we’re just really loving being engaged and we are in the process of figuring out what and where and how we want to do this,” he said of the wedding.

“There’s a lot of possibilities and we want to make sure that what we do is going to be the most memorable, fun, most special day that we could [have],” Joe added. “We have a lot of really cool opportunities at our fingertips so we want to make sure we do the best thing.”