- org-hide-emphasis-markers => t

Just to note: I've been working on a minor-mode in which the emphasis markers are "invisible" but not hidden (i.e. they still take up space, they're just in 'org-hide face or something similar), except when the point is closeby, at which point they become visible.  The extra space is pretty ugly, I'll grant, but this does avoid the sudden jerks as text shifts when characters become visible.  Also, in org-variable-pitch-mode, the emphasis markers are also reduced in size, so the extra space is not quite as obvious.  Does this sound interesting to anyone?  Right now the code is kind of a mess, but it could be refined.

~mark