Globes a Golden destination for movie fans

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Like a seasoned hunter, Ruth Turpin carefully awaits her quarry. She knows that if she remains calm and patient, the big game will come to her. It''s all about being in the right place at the right time.

"It''s something you wouldn''t be able to see in your wildest dreams," she says.

Turpin is one of the small yet loyal cadre of superfans who take up residence in the Beverly Hilton each year for their own personal taste of the Globes. The hotel offers about 100 luxury packages annually that include a two-night stay, reserved bleacher seats along the red carpet and a gift bag including an autograph book and binoculars.

The packages range from $2,800-$3,900 depending on what type of room you book and what row you reserve in the bleachers. Certainly not cheap, but guests get a lot of celebrity bang for their buck.

"If you''re a big entertainment fan, this is the best awards show because it''s got the best of TV and film," says Moira Fraser, a bubbly civil servant who operates a Gerard Butler fan site and travels to the Beverly Hilton each year from her home in Inverkeithing, Scotland. Plus, with the Globes afterparties mostly contained within the hotel, stars tend to linger, rather than being whisked away behind velvet ropes.

Turpin was first drawn to the Globes by accident. Staying at the Beverly Hilton on a business trip to Los Angeles, "As I was going to one of my evening meetings I got off the elevator and there was Kevin Costner!" she recalls.

After seeing several more stars, Turpin knew something peculiar was afoot. She questioned hotel staff and discovered the Globes were being held that night. "At that time it was a dinner, it wasn''t a big presentation at all," she says.

Back then, lucky hotel guests could mingle with stars in the hotel lobby for the price of an average night''s stay. Turpin recalls a pleasant chat she had with Renee Zellweger in the ladies'' room about their shared love of Austin.

But things have evolved as the show has grown. Bleacher seats were added along the red carpet, and because demand to stay in the hotel skyrocketed, the Beverly Hilton began selling seats along the carpet to nonguests.

One year, things went decidedly sour. "People who paid the $100 for the bleachers but were not guests of the hotel were actually camping out in the hotel," Turpin recalls. "It was a nightmare. People would push and shove and try to get autographs."

Chris Beachum, a devout film and TV buff from Tupelo, Miss., remembers that year well. "A bunch of people that had never been there before heard that they needed to get there early," he recalls. "That forced people who wanted a good seat to camp out for 12-14 hours before the event even started."

The incident prompted the Beverly Hilton to clamp down on Globe trotters. From then on, only guests of the hotel got bleacher seats, a privilege that came with a substantial price hike. The Globes package rose to roughly $800 for a two-night stay for two people before eventually settling at its present rates.