Using regex to remove empty paragraph tags <p> </p> (standard str_replace on "space" not working)
===

TinyMCE creates empty paragraph tags when you hit enter twice. like:

    <p> </p>

Which is 
`<p>SPACE</p>`

In FireBug it calls this space a `"&nbsp;"` but the html code/DB backend just shows a space. When I do `"str_replace('<p> </p>'....."` it doesnt find the block... basically I think the "space" is somehow not a standard space and some sort of borked encoded space. Is there a regex I can run that will remove this tag? I've been stuck on this for hours... or even something like 

`regex('<p>LESS THAN THREE CHARS</p>'...)`

would probably work

Thank you