Behavior of Grouped Interactive Objects

When I group interactive objects, it seems the "hotspot" for the hover state is the entire group.  And when I change the state of one object in the group, the entire group takes on that state.

I'm grouping the objects together so i can animate the entrance of the group, but when a user interacts I want them to work as independent objects.

Is there a way to change the behavior of a group of interactive objects.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about.  http://envolvemedia.adobeconnect.com/groupingsample/

Slide 1: No grouping, the outer ring has three interactive objects (this is the desired user experience)

Slide 2: is identical to Slide 1, except the three outer ring objects are grouped and entrance of the group is animated.  Here we get the hover state for all three happening at the same time, and if I visit one, all three take on the graphical treatment of the disabled state, but remain enabled (i.e. you can still click them and get the right layer to display).

I have some workarounds i can live with, but wondered if I'm missing something simple on this group behavior.

Thanks in advance

Pat