Selling Sunset: killer looks and mega bucks
WHEN IT COMES to reality TV, we’re suckers for some impossible aspiration, and Netflix’s Selling Sunset has given it to us in spades. The show follows a group of aggressively attractive LA real estate agents from The Oppenheim Group, which has sold homes to everyone from Dakota Johnson to Meryl Streep.
Between their red carpet-worthy outfits and the mega-bucks properties – which snare them six-figure commission cheques – it’s easy to understand why so many viewers fell for the absurd escapism the show offered while we were stuck in our own less impressive homes during lockdown. The second season – devised by constructedreality royalty Adam Divello, the man behind Laguna Beach and The Hills – shot straight into Netflix’s top 10 when it dropped in March. And the third arrived last week to a rapturous response from its fans, thanks in part to one of the most extra weddings ever witnessed on reality TV.
According to Adam, the key to making a great reality show is that you don’t just film whatever happens – the story is crafted by producers. ‘In a traditional scripted world, the same applies. It always comes down to the story,’ he has said, adding that if it looks expensive, people will come back for more.
Casting is also key, with Adam claiming that though the women may be high-gloss, viewers can relate to them: ‘You can find a little bit of yourself in every one of them.’ It’s true there is ‘girl next door’ Chrishell Stause, whose divorce from This Is Us star Justin Hartley plays out in real time in season three. She’s the closest thing to Lauren Conrad the show has. Then there’s Mary Fitzgerald, who once dated Oppenheim founder Jason but is now married to ‘penniless’ pastry chef Romain; feisty Heather Rae Young; and Israeli-born Maya Vander, who has had two pregnancies on the show.
But the true star is Christine Quinn, whose dominatrix-barbie style and acerbic one-liners have won her legions of fans. Christine tells Grazia that the drama between the colleagues – most recently she fell out with newcomer Chrishell – is absolutely not just for the cameras.
Christine’s $1m wedding last year to Christian Richard is key to season three – and it’s mind blowingly OTT. Christine arrived in a gothic black horse-drawn carriage and walked down the aisle to Sweet But Psycho by Ava Max. The couple also paid an undisclosed amount to have it snow indoors and had black swans at the reception.
The whole Oppenheim Group was in attendance, but would that have been the case had it not been filmed? ‘God no,’ Christine laughs when we speak via Zoom (she has 10 bottles of Dom Pérignon behind her). Who wouldn’t she have invited then? ‘All of them! No, but there were people who were just there for the camera.’
Has the show’s success meant that the staff are busier than ever, with prospective clients rubbernecking at the Sunset Boulevard office? ‘It’s super-strange,’ says Christine. ‘I had a listing appointment the other day with this elderly couple, and they’re like, “We’ve watched your show, our daughter loves it.” I was thinking, oh God, these people have heard me talk about getting a spider bite on my, like, vagina and now I’m selling their home.’
Bad news for fans after another fix later this year though: season four is on hold due to Covid. ‘It’s been set back,’ says Christine. ‘But we’re going to shoot next year.’