George Lucas' first directing paycheck is almost a tenth of a percent of his current one; Bryan Cranston is funny in a "you had to be there" kind of way; Paula Deen's portrait was hung at a Food Network event last night, and not just to be burned in effigy; Dreamworks is taking a page out of the Universal playbook and developing a crappy movie based on a cheap toy.

  • According to the Warner Brothers archive, George Lucas' first directing paycheck was a mere $2500, for the Warner distributed THX 1138, back in 1968. I hear he commands slightly more than that nowadays. [THR]
  • Going back to his Malcolm In The Middle roots, Bryan Cranston had a charity gala in stitches last night as he presented an award at CoachArt's Gala of Champions. According to Cranston, he volunteered to teach the kids who benefit from CoachArt's social programs how to make 99% pure methamphetamine in a "kid-friendly" crystal blue color. Maybe he does end up sticking to dramas. [Variety]
  • The Food Network had its 20th birthday bash last night, and despite popular opinion, hung a portrait of Paula Deen and her two sons, to recognize the contributions the butter loving grandma had made to the network. [Variety]
  • Legendary, learning absolutely fucking nothing from Universal's pathetic attempts at making movies based on children's toys, has attached director Simon Crane to their Hot Wheels project. Do you hear that? That's the sound of 10 million tiny plastic cars crashing. [Slashfilm]

Breakdowns is a daily roundup of all the news that wasn't interesting enough to deserve two paragraphs.