Catfights, couture & $40m mansions ... are you tuned into TV’s guiltiest secret?
WheN you think of shows starring estate agents, Location, Location, Location and escape To The Country are likely to spring to mind.
Featuring cosy cottages, middle-aged couples on the edge of retirement and modest budgets, let’s just say that primetime television material it is not.
So you would think that the British public would likely take a bit of persuading to turn their eyes to a show starring American estate agents.
And yet, occupying the No 5 slot on Netflix in the UK is Selling Sunset, a reality show that follows the fortunes of a group of Los Angeles realtors.
Full of feuds, glamour, and eye-poppingly gorgeous houses that cost more than the average British family will earn in a lifetime, the decadence of this reality show is outshone only by the jaw-dropping bitchiness of its stars — the staff of the deluxe estate agency The Oppenheim Group.
The undisputed star of the show is ‘gothic Barbie’ Christine Quinn, who combines outrageous one-liners with preposterously vulgar designer outfits (4 ft platinum ponytail and buttock-revealing panelled dress anyone? You certainly don’t get that in Foxtons on London’s King’s Road).
While the show may appear inconsequential on the surface, the amount of money involved is not; with houses on sale for as much as $75million (£57million), the ‘cast’ can net commissions of $1 million (£760,000). It’s pure ‘property porn’.
For the millennial fans of the likes of Love Island — and their mothers — it has proved to be an irresistible combination and, as Susanna Reid admitted in her Daily Mail column yesterday, Selling Sunset is now
the show to watch. And Netflix has done everything it can to keep viewers hooked, releasing three seasons of the show between March 2019 and May this year — with a fourth on the way. It has been the perfect lockdown binge for bored Britons stuck at home.
So who are the stars of the hit show — and do they actually sell any of those gorgeous houses? here, we present the essential guide to what critics are calling ‘the pandemic’s best cultural remedy’.
BOSSES WORTH £38M
The show centres on an estate agency founded by Jason Oppenheim and his twin brother, Brett, right.
The two 43-year-olds, who are said to be worth $50 million (£38million), favour shaved heads and sharp suits and, at 5 ft 6 in, are considerably shorter than their Amazonian ex-model staff.
Their team compete to get the best listings and to show them to clients. Both men apparently deplore the constant in-fighting among the ‘Charlie’s Angels’ cast (everyone thinks Mary Fitzgerald, who used to date Jason and coparents a pair of chihuahuas with him, gets special favours) and are horrified by some of the office conversations, where nothing, from intimate waxing to love-life dramas, is considered off limits.
Jason has a law degree and worked as a lawyer before going into property. he was recognised in a Wall Street Journal poll as the No1 agent in the hollywood hills/ Sunset Strip, No 3 agent in LA and No 22 Agent in the U.S..
he has sold houses to singer Nicole Scherzinger and actress Jessica Alba, and sold houses for actor Orlando Bloom and basketball player Kris humphries, the second Mr Kim Kardashian.
MARITAL WOES
WhOLeSOMe Chrishell Stause was well known in America before Selling Sunset, as she had previously starred in three daytime soaps: Days Of Our Lives, All My Children and Mistresses.
Raised in poverty in Kentucky, she said that at school she had been known as the ‘stinky’ kid because, at one point, the family was sleeping in a car.
She is known for her sweet smile, pastel dresses and jackets, heavy make-up and perpetually upbeat demeanour — which has led to suggestions that she is ‘fake’.
At one point, she was engaged to Glee actor Matthew Morrison. But, when series one starts, she is married to actor Justin hartley, well known for his roles in Smallville and This Is Us, and has moved from acting into real estate.
The couple, right, split in November last year (Justin delivered the bombshell by text), with her work rival Christine gleefully alerting the office to the news after it
dropped on gossip website TMZ that Justin had filed for divorce.
Chrishell wept: ‘I’m so confused. I just feel stupid. It’s not normal to meet someone and then they become wildly famous or wildly rich but I just feel, God forbid, that’s how you would treat some garbage that you threw out.’
Sources close to her ex-husband said that she had been jealous of his friendships with other women, and added that he deplored having his marriage play out publicly.
RUN FOR THE HILLS
THe agency sells property all over Los Angeles — but specialises in the high end, with the most expensive house on their books for sale for a staggering $75million (£57 million). The firm says it does ‘tremendous business throughout Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Bel Air, Malibu and beyond’.
Among celebrities who own property in the area are actor Channing Tatum, singers Beyonce and Jay Z and Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash.
The Oppenheim Group recently took on Orlando Bloom’s house in Beverly Hills, which is for sale for $9million (£6.8million. The area is home to numerous celebrities and is the location of America’s second most expensive street, where the average price of a property is $16 million (£12 million).
HOW REAL IS IT?
THe series was devised by producer Adam DiVello, who also worked on reality TV shows The Hills and Laguna Beach. Confrontations often take place in restaurants or at parties and are hashed over in subsequently filmed interviews. DiVello swears it is ‘full reality’, not scripted. Chrishell says: ‘They can sometimes nudge us to address things, but what we say is all us. Beware anyone that says otherwise. Gotta own it.’ DiVello says: ‘I can’t tell you how many hours we would sit in an edit bay just working on one scene. I think most reality shows would have turned it out in a day and we’ll spend a week.’
However, Tracy Tutor, of the rival show Million Dollar Listing, says: ‘I have never seen any of those people in real life, except for the boys. I’ve never seen one of those people. At any listings.
‘I have mad respect for women in real estate in Los Angeles, I just think that the show is not really about selling real estate. I think it’s about dating bachelors in the Hollywood Hills.’
Whatever the case, there are more fireworks to come. After news that Brett has left Oppenheim to set up his own agency, Christine declared that series four will be ‘the juiciest season ever’.