Hot Numbers

Is there any part of Oscar night that arouses more dread than the sound of the orchestra launching into a production number? And yet, incredibly, in 1958 there were two tunes that didn't go flat. Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas (left and right, above) made fun of the Best Actor nominees in ''It's Great Not to Be Nominated,'' complete with athletic hoofing and a big finish in which Burt carried Kirk off stage. Later in the show, Rock Hudson and Mae West performed ''Baby, It's Cold Outside.'' After Rock offered Mae a ''king-sized'' cigarette, the 65-year-old West cooed, ''Ummmmmmmmmm, it's not the men in your life, it's the life in your men!'' Bootlegs of the number reportedly fetched a small fortune in Italy.