But as Ralph Lauren greeted well-wishers at the end of his New York fashion week show on Thursday morning, West rose from his front row seat, approached the designer and handed a security guard his phone, gesturing to him to take a photo of the pair together.
As he walked out the front door of the conference center, he took care to shake the hand of a security guard -- a marked contrast to an embarrassing moment a year ago when he failed to shake hands, as President Obama had, with a guard at the door of 10 Downing Street.
To enter the room, employees must lay their right hand on a security sensor that takes a three-dimensional reading of their palms.
At some airports, body searches -- either a pat down by hand by a security guard or a search with an electronic wand -- are common after passengers pass through metal detectors.
"I could tweet the word peanut and they would be like, 'Don't you know that, like, my son'" is allergic, she said, clutching her iPhone in her right hand like a security blanket.
The Vision actor Bettany explained how his script was "delivered into his hands" by a security guard and stamped with his "name all over every page" so it couldn't be tweeted, while Olsen, who plays the new Scarlet Witch, described the security process as "pretty crazy".
Or the sheer annoyance of a cellphone clutched in my sons' hands like a security blanket.
Two years later, rumors continue that both Archbishops might still be alive, perhaps even in the hands of a security service after going through many exchanges between captors since their original kidnapping.
"Winning means we hand off to a security force that can secure the country," the senior Pentagon official said.
A moment later, she was heading up another flight of stairs with two badges marked "talent" in her hand, sweeping past a security guard and into the promised land of award presenters, inhabited by Katie Holmes, Kristin Chenoweth and Anjelica Huston.
