This won’t last: Beverly Hills house for lease, $600,000 a month

How much would you pay to live where William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies called home? How steep is too steep to sleep where John and Jacqueline Kennedy honeymooned?

OK, rich kids of Instagram, what would you say to a Beverly Hills manse with a $600,000-a-month lease?

And yes, if you can afford it, you can brag: Its listing agent, Jeffrey Hyland of Hilton & Hyland, says the Mediterranean-style house “may be the most expensive lease in the country.”

So now we’ll see if those tax increases we voted for in November really have chased all the rich people out of California.

And what does $600,000 a month buy you? First, the house has more than 50,000 square feet of living space and includes 17 bedrooms and 29 bathrooms. So you don’t really have to worry when Lindsay and her friends want to drop by. (But really, why so many bathrooms? Do rich people have more bladder problems than us regular folks?) Plus it’s on 3.7 acres, so nosy, noisy neighbors shouldn’t be a problem.

Still interested? Well, as my colleague Lauren Beale writes:

Designed by Davies and Hearst to double as a theater complete with a drop-down screen and built-in projection portals, the 22-foot-tall living room also has served as party space over the decades. It was the site several years ago of a 60-person sit-down dinner for Prince Albert II of Monaco.…

The nearby billiards room is a more intimate space with a coffered wood ceiling, a fireplace surround moved down from Hearst Castle in San Simeon and an 1888 Brunswick pool table.…

The heart of the house’s original rooms is the two-story library, lined with wooden shelves on both levels and a wrap-around walkway with railing above. Extra-thick glass windows let light into the restful room but shut out all sound.

Which sounds great; er, I mean, that “shut out all sound” part sounds great.

Honestly, though, with this sequester thing coming up and all, now may not be the best time to splurge. Or am I thinking of the “fiscal cliff”? Or the debt ceiling crisis or the pension crisis? Really, I’m having a little trouble keeping all these crises straight. Maybe we should just have a Crisis Day, like Presidents Day. At least we’d get a day off.

Still, I know what you’re thinking: $600,000 a month is a lot of money. But that’s probably because you don’t have a lot of money. If you did, you’d be saying: Wow, that’s only about $19,355 a day. Or $807 an hour. See?

Now you’re starting to think: If I just cut out the daily Starbucks, and stretched a little, maybe got a roommate or two, I might be able swing this.

Or, as they say in Washington: Damn the sequester, keep on spending!

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