Making button's clickable area disappear, but not button itself...?

I am using some old AS 2.0 commands to try and get a website up with some transitions using loadmovienum to load the layered clips. Problem is that when i use the ._visible = false call, it makes the buttons all disappear entirely for a second as the next movie with the transition loads on top of everything. Is there any way i can make the clickable areas for the buttons disappear without losing them for that split second as things load up? You can see a sample of what im trying to do at www.darrenlasso.com. If you click on any of the main links: print, web, illustration, etc you will see when the transition clip loads up i lose everything for a moment (nevermind clicking any of the buttons on the following page i havent attached any code yet). Any help would be hugely appreciated! thanks a million!!

quick sample:

on(release){   
loadMovieNum("dl_illustration.swf",1);
print_btn._visible = false
web_btn._visible = false
illus_btn._visible = false
retouch_btn._visible = false
contact_btn._visible = false
resume_btn._visible = false
client_btn._visible = false
}