Show Business: Elliott Gould: The Urban Don Quixote

It could have been a scene straight from one of his movies. At a rock concert in Manhattan's Central Park, a man sat nervously waiting for the music to begin. He had run out of conversation with his date and, to pass the time and ease the tension, he was now dragging half surreptitiously on a neatly rolled joint. The man looked to his left and saw what might have been his double. Same man, same situation, sitting with his girl in the same subtle, silent agony.

Trying hard to seem casual, the first man offered the joint. The second...