Actor-comedian Jay Mohr really loves his wife

Actor-comedian Jay Mohr is my candidate for Celebrity Husband of the Year, partly because he keeps posting pretty-naked photos of wife Nikki Cox on Instagram.

Hold on, I know posting naked pictures of a writer-actress-wife-mother sounds not-great? But he snaps these strategically covered photos of Cox in the morning, before makeup, to empower her by proving Internet trolls wrong.

“If you Google-search her name, the first four pages are about how she’s ruined her body and face with plastic surgery,” Mohr told me Friday. He’s in Las Vegas to perform Friday-Saturday at the South Point hotel. ($25-$35.)

“So then I put pictures of her up on Instagram with her beautiful face with no makeup, and that’s our way of combatting the tabloids. Like, ‘Really? She ruined her face with plastic surgery? This is how she woke up.’”

Cox said on her husband’s podcast, “Mohr Stories with Jay Mohr,” these Internet trolls’ warped spite against her hurt her mom’s feelings, because her mom gave her that beautiful face and body, and she doesn’t have a plastic surgeon.

This brings us to the other reason Mohr, 44, (who legally added “Cox” to his middle name) is a good candidate for Celebrity Husband of the Year:

Mohr has been recording sweet, funny, touching “Mohr Stories” moments with his wife, regarding the death of her mother. This week’s podcast was raw and lovely.

You may think, in the abstract, this sounds exploitative. But listen, and you’ll hear how close and tender Mohr and Cox are to each other, as she honors her mom, and listeners may process their own losses in tandem, like a non-interactive support group.

Mohr also stars on an AM-radio show, “Jay Mohr Sports,” which doubles as a podcast. And long ago, he crossed over to dramatic roles in movies, as the sports agent in “Jerry Maguire,” and the loving but misguided brother in “Hereafter.”

Mohr (JayMohr.com and @jaymohr37) thinks of himself as “showbiz middle class.”

“Martin Short once said to me, ‘Just bob along in the show business middle class.’ At first, I was offended. After I slept on it for a couple of days, it was a huge relief, because I am showbusiness middle class. … I was Gary in a show called ‘Gary Unmarried.’

“And now I’m doing AM radio, and I love it.”

On Friday, I interviewed Mohr in between all of his other engagements. Why is he always on the run?

“When you’re in that middle class, you have responsibility to your family. You don’t leave any money on the table,” he said. “Write a book. Figure out a way to monetize your podcast. Are you doing any corporate shows? Are you good enough to get invited back to that corporate show? Do you work clean? Can you work clean for an hour-and-a-half? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.”

And he loves playing the South Point, which puts up photos of him in the elevator.

“Two years ago, my wife and I were by the elevator, and this person goes, ‘Aw, damn, I recognize you — you’re that guy from that picture right there.’”

Contact Doug Elfman at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman. Find him on Twitter: @VegasAnonymous.