i saved before the crash and reloaded or reinstalled the game
i ended up making a save too, and i turned down the speed of the auto-advance, and put it on auto through the crashy bit.. got through it on about the 3rd attempt after that.
it wsa also an animation that was crashing it in teh other trouble section i had with rachel too..
i think its having memory issues with loading one animation while yr already trying to go to the next animation