A Magic Thank-You to O.C. : Johnson foundation plans benefit bash at Planet Hollywood. Proceeds will go to local AIDS organization.

Since his announcement last year that he is HIV-infected, former Lakers star Magic Johnson has received a slew of donations and love letters from Orange County fans.

And now--in his first Orange County appearance on behalf of the Magic Johnson Foundation--he wants to thank them.

Open to the public, the February benefit at Planet Hollywood in South Coast Plaza Village will feature a $200-per-person dinner buffet and auction for 400 guests. The exact date has not been set.

Among items on the auction block will be a Magic Johnson basketball jersey and a painting by Sly Stallone, co-owner of Planet Hollywood with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis.

“Magic really wants to thank people in Orange County for their support,” says Mimi Schulte, vice president of the Los Angeles-based foundation. “Kids have sent (the foundation) their graduation checks, their bar mitzvah money. This is his way of giving something back.”

Proceeds, expected to be in the $200,000 range (the foundation recently raked in a six-digit bundle at the party celebrating the world premiere of “The Bodyguard” in Hollywood), will be given to an Orange County facility specializing in the care of AIDS patients. “We are looking at a couple of Orange County projects,” Schulte says. “We have received lots of proposals, and we’re doing our homework.”

The Magic Johnson Foundation was established in 1991 to fund research, support AIDS education and awareness programs and assist in caring for those suffering from the disease. Arsenio Hall, Denzel Washington and Debbie Allen serve on the foundation board.

Planet Hollywood is no stranger to underwriting benefits for AIDS research. A benefit for AMFAR was held a few months ago at the restaurant’s New York location. “Half of the stars in Hollywood--Tom Cruise, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kim Bassinger, Elizabeth Taylor, Demi Moore--put their ‘kisses’ on paper and they were auctioned off at the event,” says New York film producer Keith Barish, chairman of Planet Hollywood. “It’s such a worthy cause. We want to make our restaurants available to charity a couple of times per month.”

*

No Scrooges here: “Some folks say bankers are Scrooges, but we have a heart,” joked Bank of America executive Doug Taylor at Thursday night’s performance of “A Christmas Carol” at South Coast Repertory. Indeed. Bank of America has underwritten the SCR play (through Dec. 27) with a $25,000 donation.

Among the 400 guests at the pre-performance party for bank clients and SCR board members were arts philanthropist Henry Segerstrom and his wife, Renee, and Rockwell chief Don Beall and his wife, Joan.

Dining alfresco on hot prime rib sandwiches, the fashionable crowd (seen: a smattering of sable and mink and dresses splashed with sensible amounts of glitter) chatted about their favorite holiday play. “I love the tradition of it; it really takes me back,” said Bank of America executive Jack Meyers.

“People do love it because it’s traditional,” said the play’s director, John-David Keller. “What better way to ring in the season?”

Keller sported proof of his 13-year involvement with the production--the red and white scarf the cast gave him when the play opened at SCR. “I haul it out every year,” said Keller, giving the stole an affectionate tug.

Ah, tradition.

*

Topaz glitters: Just what the new Bowers Museum of Cultural Art needed--a cozy, bronze-toned haven where the tired and hungry can kick up their feet.

In his first collaboration with restaurateur David Wilhelm, Holland-born architect Robert Mechielsen went for curves, not angles, when he designed the museum’s in-house bistro, Cafe Topaz. The result: a warm contrast with the renovated museum’s new, cool surfaces.

“Robert is donating his time to put new faces on the museum’s entry and conference center so the lines will flow in the same pleasing way as they do in Topaz,” said Patricia House, the museum’s director of development.

Guests at the recent cafe opening sipped mulled cider and dined on Southwestern fare--succulent tamales with duck ragu--in the museum courtyard and then settled back in the bistro for one of Wilhelm’s trademark dishes: white chocolate Grand Marnier souffle. . .

*

A new party place: For years Mama Pina has been Antonio Cagnolo’s best-kept secret: the tiny room near the kitchen of his Antonello Ristorante was a place where he dined with business cronies. But word got out about its European charm, and, at a recent dinner for some clients, Cagnolo officially opened the room to the public. All you need is a group of four to 12 people and a willingness to spend a minimum of $30 per person. A cozy New Year’s Eve bash, anyone?