Sorry friends, Joe Manganiello is off the market.
While on vacation in Italy the True Blood heartthrob, 33, popped the question to his girlfriend, actress/model Audra Marie.
Manganiello, who plays werewolf Alcide Herveaux on the HBO drama, and Marie met at a 2009 Super Bowl party, but it was anything but love at first sight.
"She wouldn't go out with me for six months," Manganiello told People magazine in September. "We started dating a few months before I got cast [on True Blood]."
Manganiello says Marie is "a great dresser. She's gorgeous, and she's tall. And she's sweet ... nice. And she makes crazy English breakfasts."
Marie, meanwhile, says her man’s most appealing qualities are his "sense of humor, his work ethic and how humble he is with everything that has gone on."
The pair have not yet set a wedding date.
True Blood's hunky werewolf Joe Manganiello sometimes brings his work home with him. And that's just fine by his girlfriend, actress and model Audra Marie.
"I sniff you a lot. And I growl a lot when you ask me to do things, like clean up," Manganiello joked to Marie while talking with People magazine at Wednesday's New York premiere of HBO's Boardwalk Empire.
Asked if it's a turn-on that her boyfriend plays a werewolf, Marie replied, "Of course!" She added that Manganiello is perfectly cast, "if you saw how he eats at home. He likes to eat meat without a utensil."
They draw the line, however, at Manganiello coming home in full werewolf makeup. "No," says Marie. "He washes that off, scrubs if he has to."
The pair met in early 2009, "on the way to the Commissioner's Ball when the Steelers won the Super Bowl," Manganiello says. But it took a while to win Marie over. "She wouldn't go out with me for six months," he says. "We started dating a few months before I got cast [on True Blood]."
Asked to name each other's best qualities, Manganiello says Marie is "a great dresser. She's gorgeous, and she's tall. And she's sweet ... nice. And she makes crazy English breakfasts."
Marie, meanwhile, while surely fond of Manganiello's abs, points to his "sense of humor, his work ethic and how humble he is with everything that has gone on."
And apparently she's a fan of his acting, too. "Joe introduced me to the show on our first date," she says. "And on our second date ... he brought the DVD."
In one summer, “True Blood’s” Joe Manganiello has gone from rising star, to the hot hunk on everyone’s lips.
When Access Hollywood first spoke to the Pittsburgh-bred actor earlier this summer — on the eve of his personal premiere (in episode 3) of the acclaimed HBO series — he was buzzing and excited about welcoming family and friends to a small party to celebrate his work as Bon Temps’ newest arrival. He was thrilled to have won the role of the werewolf Alcide and found it a kick that a few people at his gym, hip to “True Blood” casting news, had recognized him and offered some early enthusiasm.
Now, things are a different story… a bigger one.
“Its like completely changed,” Joe laughed down the phone line from across town in Los Angeles. “I mean, the amount of fan response?… I’m a regular on the show now, that’s the big change. I guess the level of just like awareness I have… There’s paparazzi that would show up at my gym when I was working out. It’s been wild.”
The paparazzi presence has been interesting for the 6’ 5” actor, who told Access he’s now paying a little more attention to his out-of-home get-ups.
“Yeah, you have to watch what you’re wearing obviously and you mix your schedule up accordingly, but there’s an amount of it that’s good and it means people are watching the show and people are wondering what I’m doing,” he said. “You know, I don’t want to be famous because I want people chasing me around at the grocery store. I wanted to be recognized for the work I’ve done in order to get more work and better work and to be able to make better choices. It was really about freedom.”
As for his work – there’s more of it on the way this Sunday. Joe’s character Alcide, who has been absent for several episodes, returns to Bon Temps for the Season 3 finale, and while there, he’ll be running into Anna Paquin’s character – Sookie Stackhouse.
“I’ll say this: Sookie and Alcide pick up where they left off, with their last conversation on her porch,” he said, referring to the steamy moment where a not-quite-single Sookie stared dreamily into the tanned werewolf’s big brown eyes.
“From there, there’s a lot of unfinished business that any viewer of the show could see,” Joe continued. “So Alcide’s gonna come back and he’s gonna take care of some business.”
In the Charlaine Harris books that Alan Ball’s HBO series is loosely based around, Alcide is friendly with the vampire king of Mississippi, Russell Edgington, played by Denis O’Hare. So far the two haven’t interacted on the show as of yet — but could they?
“I cannot confirm or deny that, but you wont have to wait very long for that answer,” Joe explained.
As for finally getting some screen time with Alexander Skarsgard’s character – Eric Northman – who initially ordered Alcide to protect Sookie, Joe said that “possibly” could happen.
With “True Blood’s” Season 4 not set to begin shooting until November, the actor said he’ll be spending at least part of his time off in Europe, finally able to take it all in.
“I’ve been going full bore for the past 9-10 months, so I’m also gonna take a little bit of time off and go to Europe for a little while and bounce around,” he said. “I’ve never been to Europe, so I’m gonna go visit and check it out.”
The Season 3 finale of “True Blood” airs on HBO on Sunday at 9:00 pm (ET).
Breakout stars don't come more "breakout" than True Blood's Joe Manganiello.
Manganiello told Extra's Lauren Sanchez that before becoming sexy werewolf Alcide, his life was far from glitz and glamour.
"I was shoveling sand and gravel off the back of a truck trying to make ends meet for a little while in there," he said of his pre-stardom days. "Hauling cement bags and jackhammers... it got rough."
Now the actor can been seen nearly nude, battling baddies on True Blood.
"We all have to appear naked on the show," said Manganiello. "You get three choices [on how to cover up], one's a sock, a thong with a plastic back -- and I was warned that when you run really fast the plastic will snap... The third [choice] is the man panty or the manty -- which is so tight and constricting." Joe told Lauren he decided to go with the sock.
What does his girlfriend think about all his racy scenes? "There's a lot of understanding that she gives to me," he said. "But she's been great about it all."
True Blood's Joe Manganiello covers up his sexy wolf-pack abs Sunday at the Crest 3D White Breakthrough Awards in Los Angeles.
Hey mom, everybody's doing it! But does everyone look so good in nude scenes?
The exposure comes easy to Joe Manganiello as protective and loyal werewolf Alcide on HBO's True Blood because, hey, his costars are shedding their clothes too!
"[It's not] uncomfortable as long as everyone else has to do it," Manganiello said at the 9th Annual InStyle Summer Soiree in Hollywood. "Everyone else has to do it, so when it's your turn, it's your turn."
And fans of the new Hollywood heartthrob, 33, can rest assured, those racy scenes will keep coming. "I'm never going to stop shape shifting," Manganiello said. "So I'm sure there will be more [nudity] in the future. I would bet money on that."
But as a serious, theater-trained actor, Manganiello cares more about people appreciating his art than appreciating his abs. "For years, I've been begging people to watch the shows I was on, and now I don't have to," he says. "It's definitely the best thing [about fame]."
Well, that and your carved abs getting so much screen time.
There’s a hot new werewolf on the scene!
Taylor Lautner may be People Magazine’s most wanted star in 2010, but True Blood fans will have something to growl about now that the show has cast Joe Manganiello as Alcide Herveaux, who will appear in season 3 as a love interest for Sookie Stackhouse.
In the books by Charlaine Harris that HBO’s hit is based on, the werewolf Alcide helps Sookie (played by Anna Paquin on the show) search for her missing vampire beau Bill Compton (played by Stephen Moyer).
According to http://www.ew.com/, which first reported the casting news, producers were looking for a “good-looking, rough-around-the-edges, articulate, heroic, and decent” man for the role.
They found their guy in Manganiello, who is best known for playing bartender Owen on One Tree Hill and his recurring role as Brad on How I Met Your Mother.
In another bit of casting news, Emmy-winner Alfre Woodard will guest star on True Blood, according to The Hollywood Reporter, as the mother of Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis), Merlotte’s short-order cook who illegally sold vampire blood.
Sorry friends, Joe Manganiello is off the market.
