In a cocoon of their making

In a 27-page "chronology" written by Blake in October in preparation for a lawsuit against the church that was never filed, he alleges the couple was "methodically defamed, harassed, followed and threatened" by Scientologists. The document lists Tom Cruise, filmmaker-artist-author Miranda July, writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson, former Viacom Chief Executive Tom Freston, alternative rocker Beck and Art Forum Editor Tim Griffin, among others, as players in the dispute. In addition, a number of Hollywood talent agents and major league art collectors were accused of being in on the conspiracy.

In many ways, the chronology serves as a portrait of growing paranoia: It begins with struggles over making a film and ends up with mentions of implied threats to the couple's dog and sightings of "Scientology related satanic graffiti" near their Venice, Calif., home.

But also the papers flesh out a picture of Blake, 35, and Duncan, 40, as an Information Age "It" couple with an all-access pass to the hippest quadrants of popular culture -- but who failed to find their bliss in Hollywood.

Possessed of movie star good looks, remembered as "alarmingly brilliant" and at times jealously protective of each other, the couple has been posthumously dubbed "Theremy" by Artnet.com.

"They were like two parts of the same person -- very, very bonded," said New York-based writer Glenn O'Brien, who vacationed with the couple at his country house days before Duncan's death. "They were both extremely bright and knowledgeable. You could talk to them about the history of electricity or politics. Both were really scholarly in a pop sense."

'Never spent a night apart'

"They were a dynamic force, and I'm sure their brilliance circulated between them symbiotically," said Jonathan Binstock, former curator at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where an exhibit of Blake's final works will be mounted in October. "She told me once they had basically never spent a night apart in their relationship."

Duncan is most frequently identified with her blog the Wit of the Staircase (from the French phrase "esprit d'escalier" -- the perfect witty response one thinks up after the conversation is over), which showcased her far-ranging cultural obsessions, including supermodel Kate Moss and discontinued perfumes. It became widely bookmarked among literary-minded Angelenos. She was also a freelance essayist, screenwriter and CD-ROM game designer whose titles -- Chop Suey, Smarty and Zero Zero -- attracted a cult following among girls.