If there is ever a time when you load text from an external source containing unwanted HTML markup use the following function. This uses a regular expression to strip all HTML tags from the input string. The string “<strong>Click <a href=’http://example.com’>here</a> to find out more</strong>” would simply be converted to “Click here to find out more.”. This returns a new string, leaving the input string unchanged.

function stripTags(string:String):String
{
    var s:String = string;
    var regexp:RegExp = new RegExp("<[^<]*<", "gi");
    return s.replace(regexp, "");
}