Hollywood Virgin

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Hollywood Virgin has captured hearts, headlines, and high praise around the world—not just for its Hollywood insider revelations, but for its raw honesty, relatability, and universal truths about ambition, identity, success, and knowing when to walk away.

From small-town Texas to Hollywood power tables, Jason Felts chronicles his meteoric rise through the cutthroat entertainment industry—creating films, shows, and music festivals, launching global brand campaigns, building a Virgin-branded entertainment empire, while rubbing elbows and butting heads with A-listers before walking away at the height of it all. Jason elegantly removes the concealer off the powerful, fake, and dishonest power players at the same time he equally shines light on the authentic, selfless, or lesser-known stories in Hollywood.

This wildly entertaining and deeply honest book is packed with jaw-dropping celebrity encounters, untold industry stories, and hard-earned lessons on ambition, identity, and staying human in an industry that rewards anything but. Felts shares his rollercoaster ride of hustle and reinvention, revealing how he:

• Launched the very first show to feature a Kardashian
• Became the youngest CEO (after mentor, Sir Richard Branson) to run a Virgin company
• Built and ran a multi-million-dollar global company for Virgin
• Worked and built relationships with Bradley Coooper, Courteney Cox, Kate Winslet, Hugh Jackman, Jessica & Ashlee Simpson, Halle Berry, will.i.am, Oliver Stone and dozens more
• Came out publicly and helped found the PULSE foundation in the wake of tragedy
• Joined the Obamas on their first post-White House getaway—and received life-changing advice from the former President

And that’s just the beginning.

Hollywood Virgin is a story of ambition, fame, identity, burnout, reinvention—and learning that success isn’t always what it seems. More than a behind-the-scenes memoir from the founder and CEO of Virgin’s entertainment company, it’s a bold, unfiltered crash course in how to make it, take it, lose it, and leave it all behind before it costs you everything. Raw, hilarious, and unflinchingly real, this book is for anyone chasing a dream, surviving a grind, or looking for the courage to rewrite their own script.

Prologue xi

Foreword xiii

Part I Ready, Set, Action 1

Chapter 1 Peaches 3

Chapter 2 California, Here I Come 13

Chapter 3 Do Better 27

Chapter 4 Eight’s Company 35

Chapter 5 Ovitz and Favors 45

Chapter 6 Who Are You Wearing? 53

Chapter 7 Read the Tea Leaves 63

Part II Take One 75

Chapter 8 Meet a Kardashian 77

Chapter 9 Searching for Greenlight 97

Chapter 10 Scarf or Noose? 113

Part III Take Two 123

Chapter 11 Necker Island 125

Chapter 12 Becoming Limitless 137

Chapter 13 Glad Expression, Wrong Impression 147

Chapter 14 One Pulse 157

Part IV That’s a Wrap 173

Chapter 15 Kaaboom 175

Chapter 16 What Matters 187

Epilogue 199

Where Are They Now? 201

Acknowledgments 205

About the Author 209

Index 211

JASON FELTS is an entrepreneur and brand marketing strategist who co-founded and served as CEO of Virgin Produced and Virgin Fest from 2009 to 2020. Before retiring from Hollywood at age 45, he co-produced over two dozen successful films and television series, including Limitless, Bad Moms, 21 & Over, and more, and has been profiled in Forbes, Bloomberg, Billboard, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times.

IN Hollywood Virgin: Breaking Into and Out of Show Business, serial entrepreneur, producer, marketing strategist, and Virgin executive Jason Felts delivers an inspiring midlife memoir that encourages relentlessness in the pursuit of your dreams while staying true to who you are—and the ones you love—along the way.

Jason Felts was a small-town, closeted kid with big dreams that ran directly to the grit and glamour of Hollywood. Through a cocktail of hard work, gumption, positivity, and a little bit of luck, Jason eventually turned every dream into reality, even if Hollywood didn’t turn out to be all it was cracked up to be.

Hollywood Virgin includes never-before-told stories about a host of famous names– including Halle Berry, Courteney Cox, Paris Hilton, the Kardashians, the Obamas, the Simpsons, and of course, the Bransons. Humor abounds as you read about the time Jason delivered royal underwear to a Queen on Necker Island and what it’s like to take a spin on Air Force One. More importantly, you’ll rediscover that life is worth living, not because of what you have accomplished—or will accomplish—but because of who you love and what you can do for them.

With a Foreword written by Sir Richard Branson, Hollywood Virgin is a one-of-a-kind, wilder-than-fiction story that will earn a place in the libraries of everyone interested in the entertainment industry, the nature of celebrity, and the power of perseverance. It’s an inspiring story for anyone yearning to discover and be their authentic self, overcome and strive again, and find out what a life enriched with purpose is all about.