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In January 1985, as critics debated whether Starman would make Jeff Bridges a star, the 35-year-old actor gave a breakfast interview to the Los Angeles Times to discuss world hunger. With other entertainers, he helped produce a television special that raised $176,000 with plans to air it in 50 more cities. He added that these resources had already ended hunger in about 40 countries since the Second World War. When it aired in Los Angeles, the article states, it raised $176,000. The article adds that Bridges said plans were under way to air the special in 50 more cities in 1985.
In the interview with the Los Angeles Times, He told reporter Deborah Caulfield that learning how many people die of starvation left him feeling tremendously guilty, since he enjoyed eating in nice restaurants and living in a nice home. Bridges said the most impressive fact was that hunger did not have to continue. He had been involved with the End Hunger Network for six years and had organised a benefit screening of the film. He attributed this view to both conservative and liberal experts, who say there is plenty of food and technology available. The figures in this section are Bridges’s own statements. Rather than dwelling on that guilt, Bridges worked with friends to form an entertainment-industry contingent focused on world hunger. The article names Bud Cort, Dennis Weaver and Valerie Harper among them, along with his brother Beau and others. Bridges also linked the cause to his latest film, saying that in a way it was what Starman was about: that humanity is often at its best when things are at their worst, though people can become too calloused to see their own beauty. The programme was hosted by Burt Lancaster, Gregory Peck and Jack Lemmon. The same piece shows that his work on the issue ran alongside his film career, with the Starman benefit screening, the television special, and the upcoming Jagged Edge all discussed in the same interview. Bridges was searching for a project that could star the Bridges family, including his father Lloyd and his two brothers.
In the year before the interview, the group produced a show on the subject of hunger.