Monster Mash: Poussin paintings vandalized; Clint Eastwood joins police museum

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Masterpieces: Two paintings by Nicolas Poussin have been vandalized with red paint at the National Gallery in London. (BBC News)

Make his day: Clint Eastwood will serve as honorary chairman of a planned National Law Enforcement Museum in Washington that will honor police officers and their history. (Associated Press, via Washington Post)

Still controversial: The planned Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem is attracting more opposition. (The Art Newspaper)

Last minute: Playwright David Mamet has hired Helen Mirren to star alongside Al Pacino in his HBO movie about Phil Spector. Mirren will replace Bette Midler, who has withdrawn from the project. (Hollywood Reporter)

A whole new world: A look at the new musical ‘Aladdin,’ based on the 1992 Disney animated movie, that is running at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theater. (Playbill)

Legal challenge: The unions of New York City Opera claim that the company’s decision to move out of Lincoln Center violates the terms of a gift that makes up the bulk of its endowment. (New York Times)

Fighting to survive: The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra finds itself nearly $3 million in the red. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Unconventional: An increasing number of pregnant women are hiring artists to paint on their stomachs. (New York Daily News)

American master: SFMOMA has acquired a postwar minimalist work by artist Sol LeWitt. (SF Weekly)

And in the L.A. Times: Music critic Mark Swed reviews Gustavo Dudamel conducting ‘Turandot’ at the Hollywood Bowl.

-- David Ng