An East Village artist fell into suicidal depression after telling friends that oddball rocker Beck backed out of her movie project, according to a published report.
In January’s Vanity Fair,Nancy Jo Sales bares e-mails written by Theresa Duncan suggesting Beck pulled the curtain down on her beloved movie development, “Alice Underground.”
“Beck and I met repeatedly to discuss the film,” Duncan wrote to a friend in early 2003.
But Duncan said the Los Angeles-based Beck backed out, fearing that his Scientologist handlers wouldn’t like the movie, Vanity Fair reported.
“[Beck] really, really tried to get away . . . [by] using going to NY to be in ‘Alice Underground,’ ” Duncan e-mailed a friend in late 2006.
“He told me he wanted to leave the cult desperately, and this what they do when someone knows that.”
The tragedy this year of Duncan’s July 10 fatal drug overdose was compounded one week later when heartbroken boyfriend Jeremy Blake, a noted artist himself, waded into the choppy waters off Rockaway Beach, leaving behind a suicide note.
Friends said Duncan had once been beaming in confidence because her “Alice” script was generating hot Hollywood buzz.
The story would have been about two New York prep-school girls who kidnap a rock star, after he told them he wanted to leave the Church of Scientology and they offered help.
The selling point of Duncan’s project was having the movie’s protagonist played by real-life Scientologist rocker Beck, according to the doomed artist.
Beck said he was only casual friends with Duncan and Blake, and certainly had no intentions of leaving the Church of Scientology.
“That’s ridiculous. Totally false,” Beck told the mag about his alleged agreement to work on “Alice.”
“Had we been closer and discussed anything as personal as religion, I would have only had positive things to say about Scientology.”
Beck, 37, admitted he and Blake had a business relationship in 2002 when the ill-fated artist helped design the album cover on “Sea Change.”
The rocker insists he wouldn’t have been interested in acting at that time because of personal and scheduling restraints.
Beck and his wife had their first child in May 2004.
“We never met to discuss the film,” Beck said. “I did explain to her I wasn’t looking to act right then, and with the album, tour schedule, and a baby on the way, it wouldn’t be feasible.”
A spokesman for the rocker told The Post last night that Vanity Fair’s quotes from Beck were accurate.
But the mouthpiece said Beck didn’t want to add any additional comments: “That’s about as on-the-record as you’re going to get from him.”