SPYWITNESS

 

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By Joel Stratte-McClure

Who was getting all the attention during the VIP cocktail party before the JCPenney Asian Excellence Awards at UCLA's Royce Hall on Wednesday night?

Not Quentin Tarantino, B.D. Wong, Tia Carrere, Rex Lee, Kenny G, Steven Segal, Cheryl Burke, Sharon Leal, Lindsay Price, Brenda Song, Navi Rawat, Daisy Fuentes or Bai Ling. Instead everyone put down their sushi and Courvoisier Exclusif cognac to take photos of Kristi Yamaguchi and congratulate YouTube founder Steve Chen.

"The entertainment business is just the tip of Asian excellence," said Lee of  "Entourage," who won best-supporting actor for the second year running. "Kristi won an Olympic gold medal and we all know Asians are techies."

Yamaguichi, who picked up the Inspiration Award, is used to the spotlight.

"But I'm still a bit awestruck by Hollywood because the sports world is much lower key," said the "Dancing with the Stars" contestant. "IL'll just enjoy the attention while it lasts."

Chen was humbled.

 "It's actors here tonight who deserve all the acclaim," said the Pioneer Award recipient. "All we did was put up a Web site for everyone's videos."

And then sold it to Google for $1.65 billion.

 

Photo of Steve Chen and Kelly Hu by Getty Images