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Preppy Cape Codders say Out With the Color!

The seaside town of Chatham, on Cape Cod, is up in arms over the painting of the Georgian abode of Hilary and Tina Foulkes, Main Street's sherbet explosion of citrus-y weirdness. Wait a sec—tiny patriotic town with a historic center fired up about paint swatches but not about the rampant, overt lesbianism of Hilary and Tina? Turns out Hilary is actually a guy—whew—who's an M&A expert within his law firm and who "definitely is a strong believer in private property rights," William Riley, the couple's lawyer, told the Cape Cod Times. The Foulkses applied to renovate the house, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, in 2007, but the townspeople cried and a two-plus-year legal battle ensued. Finally, it seems, the Foulkses have flipped them the bird. "The building needed to be painted," Riley says. The wild colors have a citizenry divided among the cheerers and the jeerers and even within themselves—"One critic ended up apologizing for yelling and bought two paintings" from the 10-artist coop gallery that rents space in the building. But don't expect it to be back to business as usual anytime soon; neighbor Don Edge told the paper that the incident "has certainly bumped (the topic of) sharks with most people in Chatham."
·Color scheme in Chatham spurs outcry [Cape Cod Times]
·Lawyerly Lairs: A Skadden Partner’s ‘Hideous’ House Causes Cape Cod Controversy [Above the Law]