By Kate Blake- Editor The Entertainment Hotline

At the end of 2008 many entertainment sites were talking about the surprising return of the year- the resurgence of the musical in films. The Entertainment Hotline would like to go on record as being the first to comment on the surprising resurgence of 2009. What is it that is making an appearance that has been missing for years? It is nothing other than chest hair! Not since Tom Selleck slid out of the ocean all hairy and manly and wet in Magnum PI has chest hair been so visible as it has been this year.

Tom Selleck- classic hairy chest moment from Magnum PI

Gone are nothing but smooth waxed chests- is this a sign of the tough economic times? Has chest waxing been one of the victims of budget cuts on set? Or is this just a cyclical return to a more natural male look? Lets examine who is going hairy these days and how well they pull it off. Feel free to sound off in the comments below. We will run a detailed examination of who does the bare look best later as a counterpoint- isn’t this a great excuse to hunt down shirtless guys photos?

Who has been seen going au naturelle? Some recent hairy examples in film include Hugh Jackman who is hairy and the epitome of masculinity in both Australia and Wolverine.

Ryan Reynolds showed his hairy goods on the cover of Entertainment Weekly- assuring The Proposal a lock on the number one spot at the box office.

Into the Blue 2 The Reef- a straight to DVD sequel features not only the lovely Laura  Vandervoort in a series of string bikinis- but her O.C. grad co-star Chris Carmack sports a nice blond mat of chest hair.

Jake Gyllenhaal is showing his hairy chest and lovely physique in the upcoming Prince of Persia film from Disney.

Chris Evans seen in two superhero flicks- the Fantastic Four series and Push sports a nice mat.

David Duchovny is all natural as the constantly naked Hank Moody on Showtime’s Californication.

Joe Flanigan as John Shepard on Stargate Atlantis had his fans waiting for the rare times his shirt was off to expose his natural chest.

Jesse Metcalfe best known from Desperate Housewives sports some chest hair when he is not on set and it goes well with his mammoth tats.

Zachary Quinto exposed a more amazing side of Sylar on Heroes in season 2 when he opened the door just out of the shower- who knew our serial killer whack job had time to work out?

Thomas Jane has joined the ranks of the shirtless and hairy in primetime on his new HBO series Hung where he plays a down on his luck high school coach and teacher who is resorting to being a male escort to make ends meet.

HBO is pretty much shirtless central on Sunday nights with Ryan Kwanten pretty much naked the entire first season and Stephen Moyer showing that vampires can still have chest hair.

The US version of Life on Mars took us back to the 70s so of course star Jason O’Mara had to have chest hair- it was right for the period of the film.

In more cancelled programming from 2008- the guys in Swingtown all sported chest hair and Grant Show even had a mustache to match! Only Michael Imperiloi on Life on Mars could top his ‘stache.

Alex O’Loughlin was another vampire with chest hair- I thought they were all smoothies and only werewolves had hair?

During daytime – Days of Our Lives Shawn Christian ( Daniel) sports a very 80s full chest of hair.

But guys- be careful ! You can go too far with showing chest hair. You do not want to end this whole thing by having the wrong man go shirtless without waxing. ( Click on the links in the next two sentences for examples of chest hair gone wrong- if you dare!) I swear the entire shaved chest phenomenon can be related to Robin Williams showing how close men really are to apes in The Fisher King. Will Farrell and Jack Black make hairy and shirtless relateable for the average guy but don’t do much for me. Personally I would rather they keep their clothes on in everything they do from here on out.

More hairy hunk sightings – and a few more classic ones:

Clive Owen

Gerard Butler

Pierce Brosnan

Could this hairy chest thing be related to Harrison Ford and his campaign last summer when he had a thatch of his chest hair excised to protest the deforestation of the Amazon rain forests?

Plenty of guys are still going hairless- I don’t think there has been a single folicle of chest hair displayed on the CW since John Schneider’s character Jonathan Kent departed from Smallville, but the days of actors being forced to wax may be in the past. The only exception to this rule I have found is Ed Westwick- maybe being English makes him exempt from the no chest hair rule?

Personally I find a nice amount of hair to be okay with me. But back hair and shoulder hair? Ew. Keep your shirt on and the lights out boys.  Weigh in on what you think about the return of chest hair and who has the best chest in your opinion- hairy or not!

Want to spend some quality time checking out pics of your favorite hunks? We have over 500,000 images in our forums from tons of movies and tv series. Feel free to share your Safe for Work collections with us too!