As TIME'S Los Angeles-based Show Business correspondent, Denise Worrell has often contended with the problem of gaining access to press-shy stars. "The hardest thing about reporting in Hollywood," she says, "is penetrating the thicket of people surrounding celebrities. Stars get heat rash in the constant glare of public scrutiny. If they do not have a thick skin, they get a thick entourage." Despite the difficulties presented by this fortress mentality, there is a need for it. Says Worrell: "Celebrities build barriers to protect themselves from the overcurious public. Unfortunately, a barrier can turn into a prison, an enchanted prison but nonetheless a prison."

One celebrity who never risks unaccompanied strolls is Pop Singer Michael Jackson, the subject of this week's cover story. Jackson has become increasingly reclusive, avoiding interviews and using his family's palatial home in Encino, Calif, as a hideaway. When Worrell started working on the story, even Jackson's friends and family declined to speak with her. But just when it seemed that the entourage had erected an impenetrable shield, several people close to Jackson relented. Joseph and Katherine Jackson, Michael's parents, granted Worrell their first interviews in five years. And even though Michael himself continued to be elusive, Worrell remained an admirer. Says she: "At the worst times, when I was the most frustrated, I would hear his Billie Jean on the radio, or his Beat It video would come on MTV. Then all the frustration would evaporate, and I would have to smile."

One of the chores taken on by Deborah Kaplan, who also reported on the story from Los Angeles, was a canvass of Jackson's neighbors. Again that shield. Says Kaplan: "I braved iron gates, intercom mumblings and dogs, and met glares Boris Karloff would have envied. None of those neighbors would talk to me."

New York City-based Reporter-Researcher Elaine Dutka interviewed music-industry performers, critics and producers in an effort to put the Jackson phenomenon in perspective. Says she: "Jackson is a master entrepreneur. He has an uncanny sense of what the public wants and surrounds himself with top-notch artists and advisers."

Contributor Jay Cocks, a veteran rock critic who wrote the cover story, says: "There will be tremendous pressure for Jackson to top himself with his next album. But as long as he maintains his family's support and his spiritual strength, I think he has some very creative years ahead of him."