I think you are being blinded by the dark powers of flash... but anyway.
Simplest way to do what you propose.
You have:
- news box: button
- options movie: first frame is blank, and at some point you insert the animation of the line appearing and the buttons for the additional options.
You can do it like this:
Your news box is a button. Just make the "Over" keyframe to have the image you want as a background.
Also, make an action for the button: "on roll over" starts a little timer (or even simpler, just insert on your options movie some blank frames before the first image appears) and when it reaches the value you want, tell target (I know this instruction is deprecated but you get the idea) the options movie to start playing and show the line, then the options.
You'll want your button action to have also an "on roll out" to tell target the options movie to go to frame 1 and stop (provided frame 1 on the options movie is blank).
Hope you get the idea.
Daniel