Reality television is headed back to the world of Hamptons real estate agents with Selling the Hamptons, which premiered on Discovery+ this week.
Stars of the show spoke to the New York Post ahead of Thursday’s premiere, offering a taste of the backstories that led them to become real estate agents in one of the world’s wealthiest enclaves.
The cast consists of six Nest Seekers International agents, including three that appeared on Netflix’s “Million Dollar Beach House,” which lost its second season to the pandemic and never resurfaced.
Bianca D’Alessio has one of the more intriguing histories among the cast members. While she was building up a portfolio of high-end clients and properties, her father, developer Michael D’Alessio, pleaded guilty to a $58 million Ponzi scheme after being arrested by the FBI. He’s serving a six-year prison sentence.
“For the first time in my life, I was very embarrassed, and I still am, of my name,” D’Alessio told the Post. “And that’s really hard when you’re trying to build your reputation and brand.”
D’Alessio still has a relationship with her father, she told the Post.
The series is also exposing a modeling-to-selling pipeline that exists in the Hamptons. At least two of the agents on the show, Mia Calabrese and Michael Fulfree, have previous experience in the modeling industry.
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Calabrese, who describes herself as a “hustler,” started modeling when she was 16. She went on to be a concierge for high-end nightclubs that catered to wealthy figures from across the globe.
“Anyone I know will tell you, when they think of me, they think, ‘She has big d**k energy’ — that’s just who I am,” Calabrese told the publication. “I’m going to make as much money as I humanly can — I like shiny things too.”
Michael Fulfree, who previously appeared in the Netflix series, also modeled. He compared that field to real estate in an interview with Us Weekly.
“In modeling and real estate, my biggest competition is in my own head,” Fulfree said. “With modeling it was very simple: go to the gym three times a day, eat nothing and look the best you possibly can. But in real estate, juggling my wife’s family business, working full-time, having a kid, anything can happen.”
In response, co-star J.B. Andreassi cracked, “I would think just given his exceptional God-given looks that it was a bit easier for him in the modeling world, compared to now where he actually has to work for something.”
New episodes of “Selling the Hamptons” will stream on Discovery+ each Thursday.
[NYP] — Holden Walter-Warner