E! Weekly magazine just ran an article entitled "10 Things You didn't Know About Rebel Without a Cause". Pick up a copy. Here was a little spot on Natalie Wood:

Sixteen-year-old Natalie Wood was desperate to make the transition from child star to serious actress. She campaigned relentlessly for the role of Judy, rarely missing a chance to put herself in Nick Ray's path — and eventually he responded. After a not-so-accidental meeting in the Warner Bros. cafeteria, Ray asked her on a date, and they began their potentially career-toppling, top secret affair. But the director continued to deny her the role in Rebel: He felt she was too ''Hollywood.'' Meanwhile, that's precisely what Warner execs wanted: They were pushing for MGM musical star Debbie Reynolds and offered Tab Hunter as a replacement for Dean.

Ironically, thanks to Wood, Ray began to envision Judy less as a trashy teen and more as a confused, hurting kid like the actress herself. Late one rainy night in early 1955, Wood, who'd been out drinking, survived a head-on collision on L.A.'s twisty Laurel Canyon Boulevard. The crash ensured her credentials as a potential delinquent, and Wood landed the part, but only after Ray had conducted a Vertigo-like transformation of his young star, which included speech and walking lessons, padded hips, and a special push-up brassiere — still known, in the annals of Hollywood undergarments, as the ''Natalie Wood bra.''


Also:
Wood was replaced by an extra in Rebel's most famous scene Wood's status as a minor complicated the shoot — but never so dramatically as on the night of the chickie run. Wood was forced to leave at midnight, before she'd completed one of the most important scenes of her career: Judy's signaling the start of the drag race. Wood was there for her close-ups but had to be replaced for her majestic long shot, in which she stands with arms raised as two rows of headlights illuminate her. Faye Nuell Mayo, an extra hired for the day, stood in. Afterward, Mayo became a regular on the set, achieving an easy rapport with Dean.

thanks, frank. natalie was one of the few people who remained loyal to nick ray and helped him out when he asked. he wanted natalie to appear at the showing of one of his films when it was shown at Cannes and she did this for him. she attended with rj....