2 things that I noticed..

1)It seemed like another aspect of the movie that showed how obsessed the director, Joel Schumacher, was with Julia Roberts at the time (which he later admitted.) He seems obsessed with her throughout the whole movie , the camera lingering on her etc. When it first came out, Julia was famous for Pretty Woman and the big red hair. So it all seemed very deliberate and actually a bit too "on the nose."

2)In early development, the Gordon character was supposed to be part of a love triangle. But the script does not give any motivation for Julia to even have an affair. In the original novel, a huge part of the story is Hilary's affair with Gordon, but the novel is more complex and very different from the more simplistic movie. In the book, Hilary is more isolated living with Victor, and they both know he is still sick. She turns to Gordon for comfort and because he is so different from Victor. And he is not a big dumb goof like he is in the movie, but a quiet, strong, blue-collar guy. He is absolutely unnecessary in the movie and poorly developed. The director also admitted that he was so obsessed with the two characters of Hilary and Victor that he neglected the other characters.