diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 2e8a97434..7834e94ab 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -4,6 +4,17 @@ Release 0.6 (in development)
 New features added
 ------------------
 
+* Incompatible changes:
+
+  - The ``autodoc_skip_member`` event now also gets to decide
+    whether to skip members whose name starts with underscores.
+    Previously, these members were always automatically skipped.
+    Therefore, if you handle this event, add something like this
+    to your event handler to restore the old behavior::
+
+       if name.startswith('_'):
+           return True
+
 * Configuration:
 
   - The new ``html_add_permalinks`` config value can be used to
diff --git a/sphinx/ext/autodoc.py b/sphinx/ext/autodoc.py
index ddaba04cc..6b8da3862 100644
--- a/sphinx/ext/autodoc.py
+++ b/sphinx/ext/autodoc.py
@@ -525,14 +525,15 @@ class RstGenerator(object):
                     all_members = sorted(todoc.__dict__.iteritems())
         else:
             all_members = [(mname, getattr(todoc, mname)) for mname in members]
-        for (membername, member) in all_members:
-            # ignore members whose name starts with _ by default
-            if _all and membername.startswith('_'):
-                continue
 
-            # ignore undocumented members if :undoc-members: is not given
-            doc = getattr(member, '__doc__', None)
-            skip = not self.options.undoc_members and not doc
+        for (membername, member) in all_members:
+            if _all and membername.startswith('_'):
+                # ignore members whose name starts with _ by default
+                skip = True
+            else:
+                # ignore undocumented members if :undoc-members: is not given
+                doc = getattr(member, '__doc__', None)
+                skip = not self.options.undoc_members and not doc
             # give the user a chance to decide whether this member should be skipped
             if self.env.app:
                 # let extensions preprocess docstrings
diff --git a/tests/test_autodoc.py b/tests/test_autodoc.py
index ee3fdf1dc..746c9b422 100644
--- a/tests/test_autodoc.py
+++ b/tests/test_autodoc.py
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ def setup_module():
     app.builder.env.app = app
     app.connect('autodoc-process-docstring', process_docstring)
     app.connect('autodoc-process-signature', process_signature)
+    app.connect('autodoc-skip-member', skip_member)
 
     options = Struct(
         inherited_members = False,
@@ -71,6 +72,13 @@ def process_signature(app, what, name, obj, options, args, retann):
         return '42', None
 
 
+def skip_member(app, what, name, obj, skip, options):
+    if name.startswith('_'):
+        return True
+    if name == 'skipmeth':
+        return True
+
+
 def test_resolve_name():
     # for modules
     assert gen.resolve_name('module', 'test_autodoc') == \
@@ -380,6 +388,10 @@ class Class(Base):
     def undocmeth(self):
         pass
 
+    def skipmeth(self):
+        """Method that should be skipped."""
+        pass
+
     @property
     def prop(self):
         """Property."""