"I passed up one of the dreams of every American male," says Contributor John Skow, who wrote this week's cover story on top Fashion Model Cheryl Tiegs. While Skow was interviewing Tiegs over dinner, her husband Stan Dragoti suggested that they all go over to Manhattan's Studio 54 discotheque. "Cheryl insisted that she was going to dance with me," recalls Skow. "But I had just got over the flu and was exhausted. I excused myself and went back to my hotel."

Skow was also worn out from having spent the entire day following Tiegs on her rigorous schedule; it began with an early morning TV show and ended with a seven-hour photo session for a cigarette advertisement. Says Skow: "First there was an hour and a half of makeup, then four costume changes, then hours of posing under a wind machine and a heater." Three days later, Tiegs posed for six hours --this time for TIME'S cover. Hiro, one of America's top fashion photographers, assembled what he calls "a professional task force" in preparation. Says Hiro: "For this cover, I treated Cheryl not as a model but as a personality."

Washington Correspondent Johanna McGeary accompanied Tiegs from New York to California, spending eight days with her. McGeary too was exposed to Tiegs' grueling life style. Once, while Tiegs and McGeary were in the model's silver Mercedes, an L.A. policeman pulled them over. Says Mc Geary: "The cop was startled when Photographer Walter Iooss, in a car right behind, leaped out and started snapping his Nikon. The poor cop was just doing his duty ticketing the lady with the expired license plates. And TIME happened to be there. Cheryl still got a ticket."

Iooss first met Cheryl three years ago when he photographed her for SPORTS ILLUSTRATED's annual swimsuit issue for 1975, her second appear ance on that magazine's cover. Recalls Iooss: "We were shooting on location in Cancun, a Mexican resort that's a rough, hot four-hour car ride from the main airport. I thought she'd be furious. But Cheryl is a real pro -- she arrived all smiles, no airs about her. She's like the average girl next door -- just more beautiful than average.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.