“Lights, Camera, Relationship”

Sex and the City season 6, episode 5
Original air date: July 20, 2003

Carrie asks herself if men just act as if they're OK with women in power or if there is such a thing as a "new man" after Berger seems unsettled by her success with her book. The rights to her book have just been sold in France, and she's gotten a huge advance check. She's ecstatic, and Berger seems thrilled for her as well; however, when she takes him shopping at Prada with her and she starts dropping money that he clearly doesn't have, she wonders whether he's really fine with the fact that she's really successful right now and he's not.

Their relationship is further strained when Carrie learns that the publisher she shares with Berger has just dropped his option for his 2nd book. He's miserable, but pretends that everything's great. Carrie buys him the Prada shirt he was eyeing to cheer him up, but that only wounds his ego further. He begs her to ride on his motorcycle to the big PR event Samantha's thrown for Jerry Jerrod, but she's terrified by how fast and reckless he seems to her. He refuses to go into the event, leaving Carrie with Samantha, Charlotte, and Carrie's sales guy/friend from Prada with whom she's trying to set up Charlotte.

Miranda's MIA because she's baking cupcakes for Steve's new girlfriend, Debbie. She started out by flirting with Steve while he was baking cupcakes, thinking they were for Brady's friends, but it turns out they were for Debbie's birthday. Miranda's stuck finishing what Steve started when he has to go to work, so she can't go to Samantha's bash either.

Samantha's organized this big event to boost Jerry's visibility. She's seen him in his new play in Brooklyn, which involves full-frontal nudity on his part. Samantha pulls her PR strings to ensure that all the glitterati are in Brooklyn to see him perform, and the next thing Jerry knows, she's changed his name to Smith Jerrod.

Jerry/Smith clearly has no problem with Samantha running his life, and Steve's only too happy to let Miranda intervene in his, but Charlotte lost Harry by being too demanding about setting a wedding date, and Carrie has alienated Berger with her success.