Yellow Ribbons for Tony

Tony Orlando is making a comeback. The sing- er, whose fame crested in the 1970s as the front man of Tony Orlando and Dawn, has a cameo role in the new film “Waking Up in Reno,” a new solo album, a memoir in the works, and a Las Vegas show due to open later this month.

He credits the VH1 show “Behind the Music” for jump-starting his career in 1998. “I think that gave people a handle on who I am as a person,” he told us. “It reopened a relationship with audiences that were there before and created new ones. My numbers went up. The interest in me as an artist went up.”

VH1producer George Moll said Orlando was a reluctant subject. “At one point, [he] even threatened to take legal action against us for interviewing his ex-wife, [because] he was afraid it was going to be a negative story,” Moll said. After the show aired, however, Orlando took out an ad in the Hollywood Reporter thanking the music channel.

Soon after the program aired, Orlando was contacted by Miramax for the film, which opens in February and stars Billy Bob Thornton, Natasha Richardson, Charlize Theron and Patrick Swayze. In the film, Richardson’s character is enamored of Orlando, who plays himself, and she persuades her friends to travel to Reno to see him perform “Knock Three Times.”

Tonight, Orlando is scheduled to perform at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, and on Jan. 22 he opens a 13-week gig at the Golden Nugget. His as-yet-untitled book is expected out this spring.

Orlando’s career waned after his trio, including Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson, broke up in 1977. After that, he was devastated by the death of his sister, who suffered from cerebral palsy. In the 1990s, Orlando moved to Branson, Mo., and opened a club. Today, the 57-year-old crooner of such hits as “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree” and “Candida” lives there with his wife, Francine, and daughter Jenny Rose, 10. Orlando’s son Jon, 30, is an actor and comedian in Los Angeles.

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Yothers in Court

Former “Family Ties” star-turned-rock singer Tina Yothers and her band manager, Bob Jones, are scheduled to appear in a Beverly Hills court today for a hearing on $5,000 in debts they allegedly owe their former public relations company.

Yothers, who played Jennifer Keaton on the 1980s TV show, recently launched a career in music. Her legal troubles started last summer.

Luck Media & Marketing President Steve Levesque sued Yothers and Jones in small claims court last May and won. When no payment was made, Levesque took them back to court. When they failed to appear in court in November, a Beverly Hills judge issued a warrant for the arrest of Yothers and Jones.

Jones told us that he and Yothers are being held accountable for charges that were the responsibility of the band’s record distribution company. An executive of the distribution company would not comment, other than to say the company is considering pursuing legal action of its own.

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Downtown Dining

Joachim Splichal, downtown’s answer to Wolfgang Puck, is opening a new restaurant on Figueroa Street. “Downtown is the place to be,” said Splichal, who founded the Patina Group, which owns Patina, the Pinot restaurants and Nick & Stef’s Steakhouses.

Splichal, formerly a chef at the Seventh Street Bistro and executive chef at the Regency Club, promises the new Zucca Ristorante will be “one of the prettiest restaurants in L.A.”

The menu at Zucca, slated to open in early February, will feature rustic Italian food in not-so-rustic surroundings. Splichal imported wood floors from a Tuscan villa, Italian antiques and hand-blown Venetian crystal chandeliers for the place, which will also have a 1,500-square-foot patio.

“We traveled to Italy and France and picked up everything from tile flooring to Venetian chandeliers,” he said. “It will feel like walking into an old restaurant in Milan or Florence.”

With construction underway on Walt Disney Concert Hall and the cathedral, it seemed like a good time to open another downtown restaurant, Splichal said, adding, “We feel very comfortable downtown.” So does Arnie Morton’s steakhouse, apparently. A downtown version opened on Figueroa in November; we hear tables have been full.

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Highland Clubbing

Hollywood & Highland welcomed a new gargantuan club on Tuesday night: the Highlands, a 30,000-square-foot venue featuring seven bars, two dance floors, a stage, four dining areas and four patios. The star wattage at the opening was low (Nelly Furtado and Jennifer Love Hew- itt notwithstanding), but the views from the place were spectacular. The club opens Friday to the public.

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City of Angles runs Tuesday through Friday. E-mail: angles @latimes. com.