BEYOND THE MOUSTACHE

Tom Selleckon Magnum, peta Oe handsome for Hollywood and why he wishes people would realise theres mor to him than his famous facial hair

- GUY KELLY

We are, of course, talking about moustaches. Specifically, iconic moustache-wearers. And have been for a good five minutes. If you spend any meaningful time in the company of Tom Selleck, then eventually, inevitably, you will bristle against the subject.

He's joked that he and his moustache are actually separate stars - that he's not a diva, but the 'tache can be; that he'd never run for office, but he can't speak for the ambitions of his upper-lip furniture - yet we know this isn't true. Because if you think of moustaches, you think of Tom Selleck.

He's acted without it many times, but the major roles associated with his name, from Magnum P.I. to Three Men and a Baby, Quigley Down Under to the suave Dr Richard in Friends, have one striking, hirsute thing in common.

"Yeah, I know," he concedes. "It just got to the point where I'd go on a talk show and they'd say, 'Now Tom, we have a surprise - act shocked but at a certain point, everybody in the audience is going to put on a moustache!' And I'd have to say, 'Look, I know you thought you had a good idea, but I've done that five times..." In 2010, when he took on the part he's still playing, that of grizzled NYC police commissioner Frank Reagan in the CBS drama Blue Bloods, he planned on doing it clean-shaven.

"Leonard Goldberg, the creator, later told me that he freaked out inside. He was like, 'Oh, that's interesting, let me check with the network... Then, "Tom, the network is insisting. So it's a thing?"

Still, he's not entirely sure how he came to be The Moustache Guy. "Look, I was born without it.

It's not as important to me as it seems to be to people. And every month or so, it's completely new. The hairs have grown out, they've been trimmed. So I don't know, it's something I live with. I don't resent it, but there's more to the work than a moustache..."