Laid-back billionaire Richard Branson continues his bid for world domination

He leaps out of planes, puts green into Al Gore's green movement, soaks up rays on Necker—the British Virgin Island he bought in the '70s for a £180,000 steal—and unwinds in a hillside Kasbah retreat outside Marrakech. But sometimes you can catch British billionaire Sir Richard Branson correcting what must be a 24/7 state of jet lag with a snooze in coach. (Such was his sleepy state when Radar's reporter tagged along on Virgin America's inaugural L.A./NYC flight.) Branson may deserve to take a break. His minority stake in the carrier came after a years-long battle over foreign ownership of a United States airline. Radar recently caught up the rebellious royal who shared some thoughts on cruising in the friendly skies, cryogenics, and 90-year-old astronauts.

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Radar: I love the flattering nightclub lighting on your planes. You're just inviting people to mile high club it, although the seat-to-seat chat room seems kind of risky—e-dating without jpegs.
Richard Branson: The whole plane can join the chat. And you can go to the loo and just walk by and check out 2D or 2F. Every time I talked about dating I used to get nasty looks from our PR people. You can't say that in America.

I know you have your Limited Edition hotels around the world. How about putting fear in the Thompson Group with properties in L.A. and New York?
We are looking at a site in New York for a hotel. I'm sure if we do New York, we'll most definitely look at L.A.

And on the L.A. side, any film or TV endeavors beyond your reality show?
The last film I made was George Orwell's "1984." It was Richard Burton's last film with John Hurt. Quite a strong film. We're actually in discussions tonight with some people about setting up a Virgin television company in L.A. and making our own original programming—branded Virgin television.

Will you ever tire of (or retire from) being the face of Virgin? Obviously you're not going to live forever—unless you explore cryogenics.
It's quite funny because there was an auction to have lunch with me. Someone paid $15,000 to have lunch with me in England. I had no idea who this person was. When he sat down I asked him why he'd paid all this money to have lunch with me. He said, "I'm head of the Cryogenic Society and we've got scientists, and we've got this and that...but we don't have a successful businessman." I said, well, thank you so much, I'm going to live my life to its fullest, but I have no wish to come back in 200 years time.

So who is Virgin's future Richard Branson?
My daughter's gone into a medical career so I think she's unlikely. I've got a 21-year-old son...

Sam, who's quite good-looking...
...Yes, who's quite good-looking. If he gets interested, one day he could be a useful younger version of me. He's very personable. I've never been that keen on dynasties, but a company like Virgin needs a bigger head and somebody to help lead it forward in today's world, where television has such a big influence.

BRANSON ON BEING KNIGHTED, AND THE FINAL FRONTIER >>