In celebration of the DVD release of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Amazon.com, Dreamworks Animation, and the San Diego Zoo have teamed up to bring you the Escape to Africa Elephant Cam (above).

Bad weather? No Zoo in your town? Grab the kids and sit back and watch the elephants of the San Diego Zoo live.

Enjoy!

Will Two Lovers be the final big-screen perfomance of Joaquin Phoenix? I hope not. But he has said that he’s done acting, and that he is a (wait for it) rapper now. We’ll see. If Two Lovers is goodbye, it’s not a bad way to go. He plays a man torn between Gwyneth Paltrow (Miss Wow) and Vinessa Shaw (Miss Right), bringing his trademark complexity and passion to the role. The film, which got some love at Cannes last year, hits U.S. theaters in February. But you can see it now — only at Amazon Video On Demand. Just click here, and enjoy. I’m also attaching a video about the movie, featuring interviews with Shaw and director James Gray (We Own the Night).

Big movies on your big-screen TV — without waiting for a download. Pinch me. Or better yet, get me a Roku box, ’cause that’s what it provides. I’ve yet to meet anyone who doesn’t love their Roku. (Though they tend to know the little black bit of goodness as “the Netflix box.”) The word is out, however, as of today: Soon, it will be an Amazon Video On Demand box too. Just think of it as a great way to enjoy new-release movies like Hancock or Tropic Thunder as well as more than 40,000 other movies and TV shows — no subscription required and commercial-free. (You can also access any Amazon Video On Demand stuff you already own.) I’ve been lucky enough to try out an early version of Amazon VOD on Roku, and I have that TiVo feeling — you know, the “how did I ever live without this” sensation. Can’t wait ’til you get to try it out!

So when I met Richard Dean Anderson a few months ago, he was promoting his movie, Stargate Continuum (it’s good; you should watch it). But I couldn’t resist asking him about one of my favorite Saturday Night Live sketches, “MacGruber.” Sometimes these kinds of questions are not greeted with grins. But Anderson has a healthy sense of humor about the iconic (and comedic) nature of MacGyver (ad-free episodes live here), and played along happily, bless him. P.S. That Rainn Wilson thing he talks about is here.