'Selling Sunset's' Alanna Gold owns Pioneertown? Residents beg to differ

‘Selling Sunset’ agent said she owned Pioneertown. That sound you hear is ‘a community explosion’

An Old West-style wooden building in a desert setting.

Sept. 10, 2024 6:58 PM PT

The newest agent on the latest season of “Selling Sunset” has been quick to generate the real-estate drama the show is known for — though, perhaps, not the kind she intended.

On the eighth season of the Netflix hit show, released Friday, 32-year-old Alanna Gold discusses her own property portfolio.

“I own a little Western town out in the desert,” says Gold, perched atop a balcony at a broker’s open house for a swanky Manhattan Beach property. “It’s called Pioneertown.”

“I didn’t know you could buy a town,” responds disbelieving colleague Bre Tiesi.

Neither did the people of Pioneertown.

“When it came out, it was a community explosion,” said Pioneertown Motel owner Matt French, 40. “Everyone was like, who is this person?”

In 2020, Gold and her husband, Adam, co-founded Pioneertown Land Management along with partner David Corso after they decided they wanted to “preserve a piece of history,” she told People. Both Corso and Adam Gold are listed in business filings for Pioneertown Land Co., which owns seven parcels off Mane Street, per public records — a small fraction of the total town, which has a population of about 400.

The ownership claim has incensed the small desert community. The Pioneertown Gazette, a community paper, demanded Gold apologize. One man said he woke up to 50 texts over the weekend from neighbors seething over the scene. Exasperated residents have exchanged some of the more outlandish headlines — “Alanna Gold’s Pioneertown is pretty impressive” — among themselves.

Reality TV is not known for its strict adherence to facts, residents acknowledge. But even so, the portrayal of Pioneertown as a backwater strip of desert nobody had heard of seemed a little far-fetched.

The unincorporated San Bernardino County community about 125 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, was founded in 1946 by a group of Hollywood A-listers who wanted to create a town that could also work as a movie set for westerns.

Eight decades later, it’s still a well-known destination. Tourists come to see the old-fashioned facades — a motel, a saloon, a trading post. Pappy and Harriet’s, a live music venue, draws international acts.

“It was portrayed as she found this diamond in the rough that nobody ever heard of,” said French. “Like, Paul McCartney played in Pioneertown!”

Gold apologized to residents Tuesday, according to her PR team, noting Pioneertown holds a special place for her. It was where she went on her first date with her husband — and later where they got married, she said in her apology.

“I am so deeply sorry for the confusion I have caused. I certainly do not own Pioneertown, I never should have said that,” Gold wrote in a note sent to The Times. “I absolutely love Pioneertown and I simply got too excited talking about it.”

Some residents said they felt the show deserved some of the blame.

“Half of Hollywood vacations here, so plenty of people in the industry should have paused to question the absurdity of the claim,” said Colleen Haggerty, 53.

“I mean, this isn’t Necker Island,” she added, alluding to Virgin Group Chairman Richard Branson’s private island.

Representatives for “Selling Sunset” did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to public records, Pioneertown Land Management owns several prominent buildings on Mane Street, including the Soundstage and the general store.

“They are key buildings,” said resident Curt Sautter, 60. “But when it comes down to Pioneertown, it’s a fraction of what’s really going on there.”

Sautter said he’s never been a big fan of reality TV and does not plan to start. With the occasional exception for “Ice Road Truckers.”