When Theresa Duncan, 40, took her own life on July 10, followed a week later by her boyfriend, Jeremy Blake, 35, their friends were stunned and the press was fascinated: what had destroyed this glamorous couple, stars of New York’s multi-media art world, still madly in love after 12 years?

“Multi-media art world” and the clueless artiness that it seems to imply is just the first indication that the following is about some sad-sack Gen-Xers.

And you’d be right. But there’s a heck of a story in there—I read it during my lunch break yesterday and haven’t been able to get it out of my mind ever since.

It’s old—from the January 2008 issue of Vanity Fair—and has been widely read (Gus Van Sant and Bret Easton Ellis are reportedly working on the screenplay). But hey, just in case.