Auction Winner Is One for the (Romantic) Books

B e a character in the next Madeline Harper modern romance novel.

Here was an item too juicy to pass up, thought Olivia Johnson as she scribbled in a $600 bid at South Coast Repertory’s annual end-of-season auction.

“The idea of having a starring role in a romance novel sounded like a kick,” says Johnson, a theater buff who chairs SCR’s Platinum Circle support group. “Plus, I love ‘Mad.’ She’s a character, a full-fledged character.”

Character or not, Madeline Porter--SCR’s assistant public relations director who pens Harlequin romance novels with Shannon Harper of Florida--knows all about creating them.

“Shannon and I have written 31 romance novels since the early ‘70s,” says Porter, who shares the pen name with her best friend. “We’ve dreamed up characters that range from a time-traveling ‘Pirate’s Woman’ to, well, Olivia Johnson, the heroine of our next novel.”

Yes, Johnson won the bid. And both women are tickled to be involved in something that has brought funds to SCR’s coffers.

As with most philanthropies, staff members and supporters at SCR work to create fund-raising opportunities that offer benefit-goers something out of the ordinary. One-of-a-kind auction items have become a mainstay on the party circuit.

SCR has offered everything from “Murphy Brown” and “Roseanne” walk-ons to a spin in artistic director Martin Benson’s biplane.

“We hook into our connections,” Johnson explains. “So many of our supporters know someone who knows someone. One of our most popular auction items, years ago, were year-long passes to the Edwards theaters, donated by the Edwards family.

“They were hot, hot, hot. People would come to our auction just to bid on them.”

At its annual “Symphony of Jewels” gala, Pacific Symphony puts the chance to conduct the orchestra on the auction block. Recently, symphony lover Michael Gilano led the orchestra in “Stars and Stripes Forever” at Segerstrom Hall. He paid $2,000 for the opportunity.

“Orchestras around the country auction this item,” symphony spokeswoman Sharlene Strawbridge said. “It always creates excitement.”

Annually, the Newport Harbor Art Museum offers travel packages at its Art of Dining gala. Last year’s “Art of Paris” Chanel package--which included first-class airline tickets, lodging at a top hotel, attendance at the 1995 Pret a Porter and lunch atop the Eiffel Tower for two couples--raked in $15,000.

Philanthropist Mark Johnson anted up $19,000 at a symphony event for the Yamaha grand piano that now graces the living room of his North Tustin home. “The piano represented an opportunity for me to help the Pacific Symphony and have something I’ve always wanted. It was a win-win for both of us.”

Says Olivia Johnson (no relation to Mark): “We work hard to find unusual items, because our supporters are very sophisticated. They can buy a widget. We have to find creative, new and different ways to make things happen.”

Maxine Gaiber, director of education at the Newport Harbor Art Museum, agrees. “We use our auction items to differentiate our event from others, so we always try to have a unique art element--a behind-the-scenes tour of a London gallery, for example--something people can’t replicate on their own.”

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Meanwhile, Porter is well into Chapter Two of “The Highwayman’s Woman,” the working title of the Harlequin Temptation novel that stars ‘Liv’ Johnson. (Hers and Harper’s next book, “The Trouble With Babies,” will be on newsstands in two weeks.)

After work, she goes to her Costa Mesa home and, for two or three hours, work on her novels. Lately, she has been fleshing out the story concept that has mostly been orchestrated by Harper. (“She plots out the story better than I do,” Porter says, “then the editors tell us what they do and don’t like about the outline and we redo it. Then, we write two chapters before we go to contract on the book.”)

“This is going to be a time-travel story about a woman who lives in New York and has inherited her grandmother’s farmhouse in upper New York State,” Porter says.

“One night, after a visit to the property, Liv has a car accident, runs off the road in fog. Along comes a man on horseback who sweeps her up, takes her to the inn where she’d been staying--but which is now in England during the time of King George III.”

Johnson, who is married to fellow SCR supported Andrew Johnson, is fascinated by all her character’s fictional possibilities.

“Once in a while, Madeline gives me a call and says, ‘This is what you’re doing,’ ” she says. “The whole thing is pretty exciting.”

Will Liv have a love life? “Of course,” Porter says. “Liv is a very passionate woman.”

Squeals Johnson: “I’d better be good!”