by Bob Strauss

We can't honestly say we were pining for Tom Selleck. Sure, just about everybody who has ever dealt with him will tell you he's likable. And, yeah, he was always enjoyably charming during his '80s glory days as television's Hawaii-based Magnum P.I. and in the smash Three Men and a Baby movies.

Video clip: Actor for hire RealVideo | QuickTime | Don't Know

But once Magnum went off the air and the baby shtick got old, not even a nice guy like Selleck could salvage a film career hurt by such unwise choices as Her Alibi and Christopher Columbus: The Discovery. When he dropped off the radar for five years to spend time his wife, actress Jilly Mack, and their young daughter, Hannah, on their ranch north of Los Angeles, it didn't seem like we were losing out on much.

Of course, that was before Selleck decided to show us what we were really missing. His spectacular turn on Friends, as the older-man love interest for Courteney Cox's Monica, revealed a deft and poignant touch with character comedy. And when he swung into action soon after, Selleck parlayed his cross-generational appeal into a rip-roaring, ratings-grabbing TNT western, Last Stand at Saber River.

Ted had a gay old time with In & Out creator Paul Rudnick. Check it out!

Now the 52-year-old actor is receiving the best notices of his career as, of all things, the gay tabloid TV reporter of In & Out. Loosely inspired by Tom Hanks' Academy Award speech a few years back, the movie speculates on what might have happen to an unexpectedly outed drama teacher teacher (played by Kevin Kline). Selleck's correspondent turns out to be the film's moral center.

Not bad for a sports nut (he went to USC on a basketball scholarship, is the honorary captain of the men's Olympic volleyball team--and, yes, Mr. Baseball thinks interleague play is a travesty) who wasn't all that interested in acting. After a modeling career, Selleck signed one of the last contracts with MGM and caught the superannuated eye of Mae West, who engineered his film debut in the 1970 freakfest Myra Breckinridge.

Could things get any better for Selleck? We'll see this winter, when he returns to CBS to star in a sitcom. Who says nice guys finish last? Welcome home, Tom.