Monster Mash: Schwarzenegger statues; Banksy artwork painted over

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Larger than life: Arnold Schwarzenegger has commissioned several 8-foot-tall, 580-pound bronze statues of himself. (Los Angeles Times)

Destroyed: A work of street art by Banksy located in Bristol, Britain, has been painted over in what some are describing as an act of vandalism. (BBC News)

Honored: Architect Zaha Hadid has won Britain’s RIBA Stirling Prize for the second straight year. (Bloomberg)

Angered: Placido Domingo has lashed out at the music critic of the Washington Post, claiming that she made defamatory statements about his conducting in a recent review. (Los Angeles Times)

Charitable causes: Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, is expected to become a patron of the arts as part of her future role in public life. (Telegraph)

Candid: Samuel L. Jackson said he used crack cocaine during a stint as an understudy on a Broadway production of ‘The Piano Lesson.’ (‘The Late Show’)

Stepping down: New York City Ballet principal Charles Askegard is preparing to retire from the company. (New York Times)

Adaptation: Playwright Yasmina Reza talks about the movie ‘Carnage’ at the New York Film Festival. (Los Angeles Times)

Cultural diplomacy: Musicians from the Florida Orchestra have performed in Havana, Cuba. (St. Petersburg Times)

Dr. Death: Paintings and other belongings of assisted-suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian are headed for auction. (Associated Press, via CBS News)

Unpopular: The city of Portland, Me., has spurned a public sculpture for which it paid approximately $135,000. (New York Times)

Passing: Roger Kennedy, a former director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, has died at 85. (Los Angeles Times)

Also in the L.A. Times: Art critic Christopher Hawthorne reviews ‘California Design 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way’ at LACMA; theater critic Charles McNulty reviews ‘How the World Began’ at South Coast Repertory.

-- David Ng