Sexiest Man Alive 2010

He’s Canadian (and proud of it!), he can make “a mean omelette” and his eight-pack abs have caused millions to swoon. But what makes PEOPLE’s 25th anniversary Sexiest Man honoree so very special? Perhaps his self-deprecating humor. “You just have to go with the flow,” Reynolds, 34, says of his new title. “This gives my family entrée into teasing me for the rest of my life.”

Tall, dark, handsome … and funny? Mad Men‘s brooding leading man, 39, has shown a knack for comedy, from host of Saturday Night Live to Tina Fey’s recurring love interest on 30 Rock. “He can be so serious and so funny at the same time,” says Fey. “He’s just great at everything.”

This former model knows how to work every camera angle, from showing off his otherworldly body in Twilight to heating up underwear sales as Calvin Klein’s spokesmodel. The secret to the 25-year-old’s sexy six-pack? “I cut back on my candy intake, swim a lot and try to drink as much water as I can,” says Lutz. “That’s the best way to cut up.”

He’s come a long way since Degrassi: The Next Generation. These days the former actor, 24, is best known for his chart-topping hits like “Find Your Love,” off his debut album Thank Me Later. And while the single artist has yet to find love, he knows what he likes, telling PEOPLE, “I find it sexy when women play instruments or knit.”

Mr. Shue, is that you? Glee‘s song-and-dance man showed what he’s really made of in a revealing Vogue photo shoot in June. So what does the former Broadway star, 32, consider to be his sexiest trait? “I have those muscle lines right over my hips from my dancing days,” Morrison told InStyle. “I call them my dancing lines.”

He reigned as a big-haired heartthrob in the ’80s, but Jon Bon Jovi, 48, tells PEOPLE, “The cliché of the rock star was never me.” Instead, the singer, who’s been married for 21 years and is the father of four, counts his greatest achievements in his music and his Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation. Another point of pride? “I’ve never had Botox,” he says.

A self-described “ugly duckling,” Manganiello, 34, has physically transformed into a hunky werewolf on True Blood thanks to his six-days-a-week, twice-daily workouts. But it’s not about vanity: “I’m playing a supernaturally strong character; I need to look that way,” Manganiello tells PEOPLE.

“Robert has a way of making everyone around him feel very special and comfortable,” Michelle Monaghan, his costar in Due Date, raves about the 44-year-old. “Whenever I see him, I walk away smiling. Those beautiful brown eyes may have something to do with it.”

Before he had hearts pumping on Grey’s Anatomy, Williams, 30, taught high school English and African American studies in Philadelphia. But he’s not all brains, no brawn: “I like to be physical,” the actor, who stays in shape with soccer, basketball and flag football, tells PEOPLE.

He’s proved he can bring sexy back to music, now Justin Timberlake is showing he can deliver the goods on the big screen as well. “I know what I want to be,” the Social Network star, 29, told Entertainment Weekly, “and that’s an artist.

Fast amp Furious star Vin Diesel, 43, knows something about getting pulses racing. No wonder he blew away the competition in PEOPLE’s first-ever Sexiest Man Alive on Facebook campaign. The actor’s response to the honor? “I am blushing … for real … Grrr!”

It’s been a revealing year for the actor, who memorably showed off his bulked-up chest in Prince of Persia and strips down for Love and Other Drugs. “I think a true leading man has both strength and vulnerability,” says Gyllenhaal, 29.

For more of PEOPLE’s Sexiest Men Alive – over 100 sexy men! – pick up this week’s issue on newsstands Friday.