They played, but he didn’t pay

A man who booked speeches for Andy Rooney, Erin Brockovich, Magic Johnson and scores of other celebrities -- but failed to pay them -- was convicted Friday of fraud and conspiracy.

A federal jury in White Plains, N.Y., found that Alan Walker, 67, had bilked speakers or sponsors out of tens of thousands of dollars with a pattern of evasion that included false promises, bounced checks, partial payments and ignored messages.

Besides Rooney, Brockovich and Johnson, witnesses included actor James Earl Jones, political guru James Carville, broadcaster Deborah Norville and many others.

Walker, president of Program Corp. of America, technically could be sentenced to 30 years in prison for each of the 60 counts of fraud and five years for the one count of conspiracy; he was acquitted of one additional fraud count. But he is likely to receive a much shorter prison term when he is sentenced Aug. 2.