Hartley's character was a one noter and a set up for Macy. I always assumed her role was just a courtesy for her input as technicasl advisor. But Becky Barnett is clearly developed early on as a young woman looking for Love in the traditional sense, often striking out in as endearingly clueless a manner as Cheadle's character does. Her deleted scene involving her disastrous marriage to a man who cannot forgive her pornography past seemed to me to be a logical follow through in the film's construction and in any case did not take up much screentime. I think Anderson is a genius in exactly the same way as the young Speilberg, more skilled than purely intuitive, but he has a careerist discretion that bubbles up, at least in those earlier movies, that causes odd second guesses like this example. I still think he's the best young thing Hollywood has going for it at present.