I knew I was missing something simple. Leave it to me to complicate everything. I was using something similar to that (<form>(.*?)<em>|</em>), but as you can see, I would need multiple passes, And it would also jump to different sections on occasion. I got very annoyed and frustrated.
Using your expression, even if I still have to check, it will be immensely easier. I can also tweak it to only remove at the beginning and end of paragraphs, and then go through and change the other <em> tags to <strong> tags.
I'm babbling. Sorry.
Thanks again!