HotelChatter

Oh, sorry, did we say "unsuspecting town"? We meant to say "town full of people totally prepared to milk as much as they can out of these Twilight freaks."

The Filmdrunk post pointed us toward an illuminating LA Times article that informed us that said milking strategies (or shall we say "bloodsucking" strategies?) start with the local hotels.

Travel toward Forks' one lighted intersection, and tourists can eat Twilight sandwiches at the sub shop or rent Bella's Suite at the Dew Drop Inn.

"It's not that hard to put [Twilighters] over the edge," said Julie Hjelmeset, the inn's manager. She transformed the double-queen bedroom in the otherwise run-of-the-mill hotel by swapping the white linens and towels for racier black-and-red versions and resting imitation long-stemmed roses on the beds. Bella's Suite fetches double the rate of a regular room -- $149 a night versus $74.

Ha! Meanwhile, the local Miller Tree Inn has transformed itself into "The Cullen House" (after the fictional family in the story) and the B&B's front porch posts daily messages from the fictional family's mother, Esme.

Oh, come on. Well, actually, we sort of understand why the town would do this to make a couple quick tourism bucks. We'd do it, too. In fact, this HC-er's hometown's only claim to fame is Chace Crawford, and let's just say we're not above offering guided tours of his 'hood to super-fangirls in exchange for a few hundo (kidding, kidding. Kinda).

[Photo: Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times]