A-list hobnobber Michael Kives, one of the Hollywood elite’s so-called “super-networkers” and certainly one of the most well-connected people in the industry, is finally ready to commit to a proper estate with a pedigree befitting his status. And befitting his epic 2018 wedding, too, with its eye-popping guest list that still has party planners everywhere marveling — in attendance at the Kives nuptials were everyone from Bill and Hillary Clinton to Kate Hudson and Princess Beatrice of Jordan, from Elon Musk to Reese Witherspoon and Jessica Alba, from Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and Arnold Schwarzenegger to Katy Perry and Sia.
Kives, 40, spent the earliest chunk of his career working for the Clintons, first as a spokesman for Bill and later as a staffer in Hillary’s D.C. offices, where he toiled alongside Chief of Staff Huma Abedin. He then made the leap into the cutthroat world of talent as a top CAA agent, where he repped the likes of Warren Buffett and Schwarzenegger. In 2018, he departed CAA to establish K5 Global, a closely-held venture company that bills itself as a “media and financial services advisory and consulting firm.” As for wife Lydia Gray Kives, the nonprofit attorney has a degree from Stanford Law and began her career at the ACLU.
Records reveal the home’s seller was Ted Waitt, the billionaire tech tycoon who founded Gateway. Waitt and his second wife, former model Michelle Merkin, bought the Beverly Hills property in 2015 for $10.3 million to use as a temporary crash pad while their big new mansion in the nearby Bird Streets neighborhood was under construction. With that new house now complete, Waitt and Merkin no longer require the 90210 digs (The couple also have property in Santa Barbara, plus a $34.2 million Malibu home they bought last year from James Perse.)
Kurt Rappaport of Westside Estate Agency held the listing; Bryce Pennel of Compass repped Kives.