To answer your first question: yes. Select all the clips in your event browser and hit OPT+left arrow to close the disclosure triangle and hide favorites and keywords. OPT+right arrow will expand to show them.
For your second question, you can't stop it from showing the favorite when you create a favorite, but it shouldn't stop you from quickly going through your clips. The clip you are on will remain active after a favorite has been completed, and if you want to jump down to the next clip in the browser, you only need hit the down arrow key.
Andy
http://www.timesavertutorials.com