Monster Mash: ‘American Idiot’ fans gush; a hole in Nero’s palace; Anna Nicole Smith’s Derby dresses

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--Free expression: Fans of the new Broadway musical ‘American Idiot’ are scribbling their thoughts and statements of love on the entrance wall of the St. James Theatre, where the show -- which is based on a Green Day album -- will open April 20. (Playbill)

--Trouble in Rome: Heavy rain has caused a large section of the ceiling over the central vault to collapse at Emperor Nero’s 2,000-year-old Golden Palace. (Daily Telegraph)

--New gig: Saxophonist Branford Marsalis will make his Broadway debut as the composer for a spring revival of August Wilson’s ‘Fences’ that will star Denzel Washington and Viola Davis. (New York Times)

--Fashion statement: When it reopens in April, the renovated Kentucky Derby Museum will display dresses the late model Anna Nicole Smith wore to the horse-racing classic in Louisville, Ky. (Associated Press)

--Gift for jazz: Philanthropist Agnes Varis, an advocate of making live music affordable, has given an unrestricted gift of $3 million to Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York. (Bloomberg)

And in the L.A. Times: Architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne reviews ‘Las Vegas Studio: Images From the Archives of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown’ at the MOCA branch at the Pacific Design Center; students do some hands-on learning at USC’s Fisher Museum; the play ‘Salam Shalom’ turns into a living chronicle of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

-- Karen Wada