From hell to Hollywood: Freed Hamas hostage Mia Schem attends Elton John’s Oscar bash
Schem attended the star-studded Oscar party hosted by Elton John, where she wore a dress with a yellow pin in solidarity with those still held hostage by Hamas.
Mia Schem, who was released from Hamas captivity after 54 days last November, showed that her captors did not break her spirit when she attended Elton John’s exclusive Oscar party on Sunday night in Los Angeles.
Schem wore a black cast – she is still recovering from the gunshot wound to her arm inflicted by Hamas -- with a chic white gown adorned with a yellow rhinestone pin that expresses solidarity with the 134 people from over a dozen countries still held hostage.
John came out of retirement to serenade the attendees of the 32nd Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party with a rendition of one of his most popular hits, “Are You Ready for Love?”
The 21-year-old Israeli-French tattoo artist was photographed with the former Miss Iraq, Sarah Idan. Idan wore a black dress decorated with yellow pieces of cloth, with the name of one of the 19 female hostages still held in Gaza written on each, and a long yellow sash emblazoned with the words, “Bring Them Home.” Idan had to flee Iraq after she posed for photos with the Israeli contestant at the Miss Universe pageant in 2017. She is currently running for US Congress in California and toured the sites of the October 7 massacre in Israel in December.
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Schem was in the US to attend the State of the Union address as a guest of House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana. A number of other freed hostages and hostage family members attended the State of the Union Address, among them Mia’s mother, Keren Scharf Schem, who was a guest of Democratic Representative Brad Sherman of California.
Schem's testimony
Schem became known around the world when Hamas released a video of her after ten days in captivity, obviously recorded under duress, in which she praised her captors and the medical care she received in Gaza. She was also coerced into making a statement just prior to her release extolling how well she was treated.
As soon as she was out of reach of Hamas’s guns, however, she retracted those statements and told of her terror of being murdered or raped, as she was guarded by a terrorist 24 hours a day in his apartment and shunned by his family. She also recounted the multiple surgeries she had been forced to undergo in the hope of repairing the damage the bullet did to her arm and the harrowing experience of being operated on by a veterinarian while in Hamas captivity.
Elton John’s party raised $10.8 million for AIDS research, a new record for the event, and was attended by a star-studded crowd that included Smokey Robinson, Patricia Arquette, Donatella Versace, Sharon Stone, Zooey Deschanel, Brandi Carlile, Danny DeVito, Rhea Pearlman, Tim Allen, Elizabeth Hurley, Alexis Bledel, Eric McCormack, Avril Lavigne, Heidi Klum and Melanie Lynskey. It was hosted by Elton John and his husband, David Furnish, along with Tiffany Haddish, who recently returned from a visit to Israel, and Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka.
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