Ex-rivals get limited airtime at convention

Political party committees are officially in charge of the once-in-four-years presidential conventions, but it’s the presidential nominee’s camp that makes the big decisions. So politicos are taking a look at who is among the speakers at the conventions and who is on the outs.

For the Republicans, most of Mitt Romney’s primary opponents are out but are getting consolation prizes.

Newt Gingrich is out as a speaker – but in as the teacher of “Newt University” political workshops.

Rick Santorum is in.

Ron Paul is out – but his son, Rand, a U.S. senator, is in as a speaker.

Rick Perry is out, apparently without another role. Ultra-conservatives Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain are out, too, but they will hold their own “unity rally.”

Two might-have-beens are on the bubble. Donald Trump and Sarah Palin aren’t on the speaker list yet but could still address the convention.

Hamlisch: Soundtrack for a generation

Marvin Hamlisch was arguably the George Gershwin of his generation, creating enormously popular songs while writing the scores to plays and movies.

He is one of just two people to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, a Tony and the Pulitzer Prize. The other is Richard Rodgers.

He become well known after scoring big hits from two big 1973 movies: “The Sting” and “The Way We Were.” For “The Sting,” he adapted Scott Joplin’s ragtime music from the early 20th century, most notably “The Entertainer.” And “The Way We Were” was a mega-hit for Barbra Streisand, with whom he worked years earlier when she was in the Broadway cast of “Funny Girl.” Four years later, “Nobody Does It Better” was a hit for Carly Simon from the soundtrack of “The Spy Who Loved Me.”

But Hamlisch was known in entertainment circles much earlier. He barely had reached adulthood when Lesley Gore hit it big with his “Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows” and Woody Allen tapped him to write music for “Bananas.”

After his 1973 breakthrough, Hamlisch scored the landmark musical “A Chorus Line,” which remains one of the most popular musicals today.

As if his writing weren’t enough, he was the principal pops conductor for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Pasadena Symphony and Pops, Seattle Symphony and San Diego Symphony.

Hamlisch, who died unexpectedly at 68, was a guest pops conductor with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic in 1996, stopping by South Side High School (seen above) before the show at the Embassy Theatre.