I hope I'm not jumping the gun here, but I received this communication from Jon Burlingame himself:

"For the record, I knew Jerry Goldsmith and Elmer Bernstein very well and I didn't call them "Mr. Goldsmith" or "Mr. Bernstein." I did not know Herrmann but then I also don't remember referring to him as "Benny" during the recording. Nor did I know Alfred Newman personally (although I've spent several years working on a book about all the Newmans, working closely with all members of the family, so I've begun to feel as if I did).

But in discussing the Newmans in a film-music commentary you simply can't say "Newman" because there are multiple Newmans working in and around Fox: Alfred, Lionel, Emil, Marc, David, Thomas, etc. -- so it's less a matter of informality (which, truth be told, I too find uncomfortable) as it is a matter of clarifying, quickly and precisely, who we're talking about. And I can't ever imagine referring to Rozsa as anything other than Rozsa. Certainly not "Miki" as my friend and mentor Tony Thomas often did.
"

And that surely is how simple it really is.  The REAL world.