they were on the boat the night natalie wood died. scuttlebutt has always been something nefarious, but nothing definitive. maybe it was an accident or a classic hollywood "clean up job" for an established actor (wagner) and a rising talent (walken).

her death coincided with the beginning of the "summer blockbuster" era for the big studios and a departure from banking on stars, so there's a better than average chance her death was just an accident and gossip reporters were merely overlaying their assumptions about past clean ups, of which there were several, onto the current story.