FIRST OFF . . .

An attorney representing jazz great Woody Herman will ask a Superior Court judge this afternoon for a temporary restraining order to prevent the 5 p.m. eviction of the bedridden, impoverished big-band leader from the Hollywood Hills home he owned until 1985, when it was seized and auctioned by the Internal Revenue Service. Herman’s dispute over $1.6 million the IRS claimed he owed from the 1960s culminated in the auction of his home--once owned by Humphrey Bogart and said to be worth $400,000--to William Little, predominantly a low-income housing landlord, for $99,800. The IRS also confiscated Herman’s album royalties, reportedly leaving him penniless. Hospitalized with a congestive heart problem and lung disease in March, Herman, 74, currently weighs less than 100 pounds and requires a full-time nurse. Without the extra income her father earned from touring, daughter Ingrid said, his Social Security payments and friend’s donations were not enough to pay the $1,156 monthly rent, which is now several months overdue. Attorney Kirk Pasich, who sits on the board of directors for the National Academy of Jazz and is donating his time to Herman’s case, said efforts to resolve the dispute with landlord Little have been unsuccessful. The Jazz Academy and KKGO-FM plan an October concert tribute and fund-raiser for Herman, Pasich said.