U-T's Tom Gores Mugs for Cameras in Detroit

L.A.’s Tom Gores, whose Platinum Equity has owned the Union-Tribune since buying it from David Copley two years ago, has been raising his public profile of late. For years, the only photograph of the discount takeover artist that appeared in popular media was a posed Hollywood-style glamour shot, and he rarely has given interviews. But earlier this month, after he and his so-called private equity group announced its agreement to buy the Detroit Pistons basketball team, a blue-jean clad, unshaven Gores showed up at a game in a suite 16 rows above the court and was featured on the Palace arena’s video scoreboard mugging for cameras and wildly thrusting his fist in the air to the cheers of fans. Revealed during the 2008 illegal wiretapping trial of L.A. private eye Anthony Pellicano to have been particularly chummy with the then-wife of his brother and fellow vulture investor Alec, Gores was pictured standing happily alongside his own smiling blond spouse. He also danced in the aisle, “almost John Travolta–like,” according to the Detroit News. “I’m excited to be back in Michigan. And I’m happy that everybody’s kind of welcoming me back,” he told the paper. “I grew up in sports. But mostly, I’m excited about inspiring the town.”