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In Orlando's version of events, Tony heard that Wayne was considering leaving Branson because, according to Rob Wilcox, Orlando's publicist, Newton had been involved in disputes with two other theater owners. Tony took Wayne under his Branson wing and got him a gig at the venue where he himself was performing, the Yellow Ribbon Theatre. When Tony's lease at the Yellow Ribbon was up, he fielded numerous offers from suitor venues, including the Glen Campbell Theatre. But Tony heroically made it clear that he would only come on board if his buddy Wayne was included in the deal. The Campbell people went for it, and the theater was renamed the Talk of the T.O.W.N.

According to court documents, it was agreed that White Eagle Inc., a theater management group and holding company whose sole shareholder is Kathleen McCrone Newton (Wayne's lawyer wife), would be the contractual lessee and run the business side of things.

But it seems as if Kathleen Newton was the Yoko Ono in this supergroup: She denied Tony access to expense accounts, raised the costs of his contributions to the joint "kitty" account and bullied him in attempts to get him to renegotiate the contract.

Things were starting to get ugly when Newton scheduled a powwow. On Dec. 9, 1998, Newton's people met with Orlando and his people in Newton's dressing room -- Wayne himself had left the theater hours earlier. Orlando alleges in his suit that he got wind that something was amiss and went on to discover that Newton was secretly taping the meeting. A search of Newton's dressing room, Orlando claims, revealed a tape recorder in a house plant.

Days later, the Newtons locked Orlando out of the theater and canceled his 11 remaining Christmas shows. In April 1999, one year after the curtains went up in the Talk of the T.O.W.N. Theatre, Orlando slapped Newton with a $15 million, 11-count lawsuit. While citing the Newtons' "evil motive," the suit's counts included "a violation of the anti-wire-tap statute" in the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act and a "civil conspiracy" to surreptitiously tape record Orlando and lock him out of the theater, "so that Wayne Newton would be able to rename the theater as the Wayne Newton Theater ... and to enable Wayne Newton to have the theater to himself."

How "Macbeth" is that? Tony "Duncan" Orlando rewards Wayne "Macbeth" Newton with a nice gig as the thane of Branson, when suddenly Kathleen "Lady Macbeth" Newton gets into the act, shouts, "Out, damned spotlight," and encourages her husband to completely usurp Orlando's power, claiming the kingdom as his own.

Intermission

(Featuring the music of Chuck Mangione.)

And now back to the story.

Wayne's way

Newton's side of the story is no less entertaining. In this account, Tony "Wimpy" Orlando will gladly pay White Eagle Tuesday for a share of the theater today. But many Tuesdays come and go and Orlando never does live up to his financial end of the bargain. First Newton says that Orlando's "failure to pay his pro rata share of the expenses of White Eagle, Inc., generated from his shows and his share of the overhead in accordance with the Agreement was seriously straining the business relationship."

Even worse, according to Newton's suit, Tony was not exactly a stellar attraction. White Eagle was having trouble making ends meet due, "in substantial part, to Tony Orlando's inability to draw even 50 percent of the 750 person per show attendance figure he had represented he would draw." White Eagle also claimed that Orlando had suckered them into the agreement with false information as to his drawing power.

(Ron Stenger, the former owner of the Yellow Ribbon Theatre, confirmed that, when Orlando was headlining the Yellow Ribbon, "the draw was less than satisfactory" and that for the length of its four-year run, the theater was a "money-losing operation.")

Oh, and as for Tony's version of how he and Wayne got together in the first place? Wrong. In Newton's account, it was he who was approached by the Glen Campbell people. The "principals wanted Wayne Newton as their headline performer, but if Wayne Newton agreed to certain provisions and other agreements could be reached, they would consider having Tony Orlando also perform at the theater."

As for the taping scandal, Newton claims that it was Orlando who was playing Tricky Dick, not him. For some reason, Newton's suit claims, the meeting that took place in his dressing room between Orlando and Newton's agents was picked up by sound equipment onstage at Tony's monitor board. Orlando instructed one of his henchmen to start recording the proceedings, unbeknownst to the other participants. At the intermission of Orlando's show (the show must go on!), Orlando returned to Newton's dressing room and told Newton's rep that there was a wireless microphone in the room. A search of Newton's dressing room ensued and -- voilą! -- a bug was found hidden in a house plant.

Ah, but there is an explanation for that, you see. That wireless mike had been placed in Newton's dressing room "routinely ... in an effort to determine the person or persons responsible for numerous thefts and vandalisms which had occurred in Wayne Newton's dressing room involving professional and personal property of the Newton family."

In his $20 million countersuit, Newton characterized Orlando's actions as "willful, wanton, and malicious." Such charges stem in part from claims that Orlando and his publicist knowingly disseminated false statements to the media, including the gem that "Newton refused to allow Tony Orlando to remove personal and professional items [from the theater], including holding his daughter's Christmas toys hostage."

Next page | What do Bransonites do when show-biz folks start litigating?