Monster Mash: Getty Museum exit; Nicole Scherzinger and ‘Phantom’

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Abrupt exit: David Bomford, who has served as the Getty Museum’s acting director for nearly two years, is leaving the museum Feb. 1. (Los Angeles Times)

Pop sensation: Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger will perform selections from ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ on a telecast in Britain celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. (Broadway World)

Early closing: The Broadway revival of Noel Coward’s ‘Private Lives,’ starring Kim Cattrall, will shutter Dec. 31, earlier than expected, due to sluggish ticket sales. (Entertainment Weekly)

Unconventional: A museum in Iraq is attempting to recover stolen artifacts by paying smugglers to return the items. (CNN)

Big easy: The New Orleans Jazz Festival has announced its 2012 line-up. (New York Times)

Unsigned: A painting believed to be by the street artist Banksy has appeared in Liverpool. (BBC News)

Not popular: A proposed public statue depicting a freed slave holding a flag representing the African diaspora has been withdrawn after it stirred controversy in Indianapolis. (Indianapolis Star)

Honored: Billy Joel has become the only non-classical performer to be honored with a portrait at Steinway Hall in New York. (BBC News)

Promise: The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum has received a $10-million pledge from the Country Music Assn. (Los Angeles Times)

Passing: Chicago architect Gene Summers, the former dean of the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology, has died. (Chicago Tribune)

Also in the L.A. Times: George Clooney is joining the L.A. cast of Dustin Lance Black’s Prop. 8 play.

-- David Ng