I have the hearts symbols ( & hearts ;) in scrolling div boxes...they usually show up fine, but lately they show up as ?s ... even when i JUST edited my profile, inputting the &heart code and saving my profile like that instead of with the heart symbol actually in there (converted from the code and appearing as the actual symbol -- in the interests field) like it sometimes does.

is there a way to prevent this from happening? :/

Nope, that's MySpace for you.

Use ALT codes?
Hold ALT and press the NUM PAD numbers.
ALT + 3 = ♥
ALT + 5 = ♣
ALT + 6 = ♠
Etc, etc.
See if that helps.

Yeah, sorry. I don't think there's a solution to that. MySpace is just stupid at times. You can use an image version of it instead, if you want.