Unloading a page with a lot of data in IE crashes using jQuery

I have a GUI I developed that displays reports of various kinds. The reports are loaded in using the $.ajax function of jQuery and are unloaded with a jQuery script that empties the div that the report was in and replaces it with the menu list of all reports. When a menu item is clicked on, again the $.ajax function loads in the report and removes the menu.

This functioning works great in both Firefox and IE8, except for one report which is larger than most of the others (about 20,000+ cells of data), when unloading it crashes IE8. In fact, after clicking the tab to unload the report, nothing happens for about 10 seconds at which point in time a window pops up stating "Stop running this script? A script on this page is causing Internet Explorer to run slowly. If it continues to run, your computer might become unresponsive."  If I click "yes" (i.e. stop running this script) IE freezes. If I click "No" the popup freezes for about 10 seconds and then refreshes with the same message.

This particular report can also be rendered with less data and when that is the case it works fine on unloading. I am really stymied as to what the problem. I've tried all sorts of changes to fix it and I have had no luck.

Below is the jQuery script which unloads the reports.

/*CLICKING ON THE CATEGORY BREAD CRUMBS TAB RETURNS TO THAT MENU*/
	$('#bc_page a').live("click",function() {
		$('#bc_page').prepend('<img src="images/ajax-loader3.gif" id="menu_gif"/>');
/*		$('#prod_page').empty();
*/		$('#new_page').empty();
		$('#bc_report').delay(100).slideUp(500);
		$('#bc_page a').css('color','#CA0000');		
		var area = $(this).text();
		var space = area.indexOf(" ");
		if (space != -1){
			area = area.replace(" ", "-");
			}
		
		$('#new_page').delay(500).load("product_page.php?p=" + area);
		$('#prod_page').css('text-align','left');
		$('#menu_gif').fadeOut(400, function() {
			$(this).remove();
		});
		var Size = $('div.footer').height();
		togFooter(Size);
	});

Select allOpen in new window

$('#new_page') is the div that contains the menu or the reports.

I'm hoping someone can maybe spot something about this script that is odd.