The Mentalist star came top of the TV Guide poll in America for 2009, and asked about the honour at the William S Paley Television Festival in Hollywood, sexy Simon said: "I feel - you know that period when Rod Stewart was wearing the tight pants?"

 

Starting to sing, he went on: "I suddenly feel a little bit like that - every morning I wake up, do a little dance in my boxers..." before his PR whisked away the microphone, laughing.

 

"Erm, it's fun!" he added cheekily.

 

In The Mentalist, currently airing in the UK on Five, Simon plays Patrick Jane, an independent adviser to the Californian Bureau of Investigation and formally a fake psychic medium - a pretence he abandoned when his family were murdered by a serial killer, whom he is now pursuing.

 

The show won Favourite New TV Drama at the People's Choice Awards in the US earlier this year.

 

Simon, who also appeared in The Devil Wears Prada , said when he read The Mentalist pilot script he liked the way it was "slightly having a bit of a wink at itself. "There are so many procedural shows on television that are deadly earnest and this was sort of taking the p*** a little bit out of itself, and I think it's important to maintain that in the course of the series."

 

Co-star Robin Tunney, who plays the boss cop, said working with Simon was "incredibly sexy - that's what it's like!"