JQuery :: Fading Slideshow Flicker On Mouseover

I've adapted code from theslideSwitch.js tutorialby Jon Raasch, which is basically a fading slideshow. The script promotes the 'active' slide to a higher z-index and animates the opacity for a fading effect. It's working fine with a pause added to stop the slideshow temporarily on mouseover. The issue I'm having is I'm trying to stop the script from queuing up when repeatedly mousing over/off the slideshow. When this happens it flickers and goes berserk. I've experimented withstop(true,true)in various locationsbut haven't got it working properly. Where to insert this in the following code?

Code is below...
// slideshow function
function slideSwitch() {
var $active = $('#hp-featured div.active');
if ( $active.length == 0 ) $active = $('#hp-featured div:last');
var $next = $active.next().length ? $active.next()
: $('#hp-featured div:first');
$active.addClass('last-active');
$next.css({opacity: 0.0})
.addClass('active')
.animate({opacity: 1.0}, 1000, function() {
$active.removeClass('active last-active');
});};
var playSlideshow = setInterval( "slideSwitch()", 5000 );
// pauses the slideshow on mouseover, then plays again on mouseout
$(function() {
$('#hp-featured div').hover(function() {
clearInterval(playSlideshow);
}, function() {
playSlideshow = setInterval( "slideSwitch()", 5000 );
});});