HTML in database

I am writing code to store a bunch of email files, in MIME format, into a database. The body of some of these emails, but not all, are in HTML format. If I use addslashes (after checking get_magic_quotes_gpc()), the database record won't get saved. There's no error message, just no record saved. But if I use htmlentities(), it saves the record no problem. I would have thought that addslashes would have been enough to format the data correctly. Why would I need to use htmlentities? And will using htmlentities cause me any problems? here's the code in question: $from = $this->SentFrom(); $to = $this->To(); $cc = $this->Cc(); $subject = $this->Subject(); $body = htmlentities($this->Body()); // this works //$body = $this->Body(); if (get_magic_quotes_gpc() == 0) { echo "<br>adding slashes..."; $body = addslashes($body); // this runs but doesn't work } $sql = "insert emails(projectid, mailfrom, mailto, mailcc, subject, body) values(1, '$from', '$to', '$cc', '$subject', \"$body\")"; echo "<br>sql:<pre><code>$sql</code></pre>"; $link = mssql_connect($server, $user, $pwd) or die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error()); mssql_select_db('EmailDB') or die('Could not select database'); try { $result = @mssql_query($sql); } catch (Exception $e) { echo "<br>Error: " . $e->getMessage; } Thanks. Regards, Bruce