One of the things that makes press tour a little more of a sporting event is that most of us don't just sit passively in our seats day after day, waiting for quotes to fall into our laptops.

No, we chase stars and producers from the room where the press conferences are held, hoping to get a little more info afterward, or maybe a quote that we won't read in every other newspaper, too.

It's not always as easy as it sounds. Personal publicists -- the bane of every reporter's existence -- sometimes try to whisk their clients away for pictures (or just whisk them away, period) and we sometimes run into problems with networks that schedule "the talent" for television interviews immediately after the sessions, putting them out of our reach.

Since the Beverly Hilton is new to press tour, we're still occasionally stymied in our quest simply because we don't know the route the talent's taking after sessions.

Two of our Television Critics Association officers, New Orleans Times-Picayune critic Dave Walker and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Rob Owen, recently put together a sort of bird-watching guide to help us figure it all out. Here's an excerpt:

"For the International Ballroom, go to the Green Room, which is off the ballroom (to the left when you're heading toward the ballroom exit from the interior). Contact has also been made on the outdoor walkway that overlooks the pool.

"For the Grand Ballroom and Versailles, follow-up questions can be taken in the lobby outside each room. There's also a Green Room located between the Grand and Versailles, and panel participants have been successfully extricated from this space into the side hallway between the main lobby and the Grand Ballroom."