Draft:Michele Bennett (film producer)

Michele Bennett is an Australian film and television producer. She has produced films such as Chopper (2000), The Magician (2005), Drift (2013), and Judy and Punch (2019). Bennett has also produced music videos for artists such as INXS, U2, Prince, Silverchair and Foo Fighters.

Career
In the 1980s, Bennett started working as a photographer's agent. She then started working with Australian filmmaker Richard Lowenstein on several music videos. Bennett produced several music videos for INXS such as "Suicide Blonde". She also produced music videos for artists such as U2, Prince, Silverchair, and Foo Fighters.

In 1982, Bennett appeared on the music video for "The One Thing" by INXS, as one of the women at the banquet table.

In 1989, Bennett produced the U2 documentary LoveTown.

In 1991, Bennett founded her own production company, Cherub Pictures. The company has produced music videos, documentaries and television commercials.

Bennett has produced films such as Andrew Dominik's Chopper (2000), Scott Ryan's The Magician (2005), Morgan O'Neill and Ben Nott's Drift (2013), and Mirrah Foulkes's Judy and Punch (2019). In 2005, she produced the documentary Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man.

Personal life
From 1982 to 1987, Bennett was in a relationship with INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence. They shared a flat in Paddington with New Zealand-Australian singer Jenny Morris, who was INXS's backing vocalist. Bennett introduced Hutchence to Australian filmmaker Richard Lowenstein, who directed several music videos for INXS. Bennett inspired the INXS hit song "Never Tear Us Apart". According to Hutchence's sister Tina, Bennett was the only woman he said he had considered marrying. Lowenstein, who was close friends with Hutchence, also said that he believed that Bennett was the only woman that Hutchence would marry; "I always felt that, after everything, he'd go back and marry Michele and have a baby with her".

Bennett and Hutchence remained close friends after the end of their relationship and she was described as his "closest friend and confidante". Bennett was the last person that Hutchence called on the morning of his death, on 22 November 1997. According to Bennett, Hutchence called her two times that morning; first he left a message in her answering machine, then he called her again at 9:54 am; he was crying, sounded upset, and told her he needed to see her. Bennett arrived at his hotel room door at about 10:40 am, but there was no response, so she wrote him a note and left it at reception. Hutchence's body was discovered by a hotel maid at 11:50 am. His death was ruled as suicide while depressed and under the influence of alcohol and other drugs.

Bennett refused to talk about her relationship with Hutchence publicly until the 2019 documentary Mystify: Michael Hutchence, directed by Richard Lowenstein, a close friend of both Bennett and Hutchence's.

In popular culture
Bennett was portrayed by actress Jane Harber in the 2014 Australian biographical miniseries INXS: Never Tear Us Apart. Bennett claimed that the miniseries was not accurate and that she was not contacted by the filmmakers.

Filmography
Producer

Executive producer