Text anomally

i am trying to make a navigation bar for a web class with text that is created from an XML doc. right now the bar is vertical, but I am trying to rotate it to make it horizontal. For some reason when this happens, the text disappears, even if the rotation is 1 degree. Does anyone know why this would happen? Here is the code:

//returns list of jpgs from xml and makes a movie clip for each picture 
    ter = _root.myImages_mc["mx"+j].createEmptyMovieClip("movc"+j,_root.myImages_mc["mx"+j].getNextHighestDepth());
//where to start creating
    ter._y = 0; 
//create a text field for each jpg
    tex = ter.createTextField("tt"+j,_root.getNextHighestDepth(),30,((_root.image_height)-30),140,40);
//formats text                
    var txtFormat:TextFormat;
//text properties
    tex.wordWrap = true;
    tex.multiline = true;
//where to find text in xml    
    txval = _root.myImages[j].attributes.title;
    tex.text = unescape(txval);
     tex.textColor = 0xFFFFFF;                                
    txtFormat =  tex.getTextFormat();
    txtFormat.size = 20;
    tex.setTextFormat(txtFormat);