A very simple full demo of how to rotate in AS3 using only the "rotation" feature. No matrices, transformations, etc.
ISSUE: When rotating a sprite in Actionscript, the pivot point is the upper left corner. This is almost never desired.
The confusion arises because Actionscript doesn't actually rotate around the upper-left corner, it rotates around 0,0 which is usually but not necessarily the upper-left corner. So, if you place the object you want to rotate in a container such that its center is at its container's 0,0, you can simply rotate the container and all will be well.
This code demonstrates an imperfect circle that is decorated by a square at one corner. We put the square on the circle where we want it, and hten we position the square as prescribed above. With "o" being the parent/owner sprite and "c" being the decorated circle, we need only to position it so its center is at "o"'s 0,0:
c.x = -c.width/2;
c.y = -c.height/2;
o.addChild(c);
And then, to rotate:
o.rotation++;
Hopefully this clears up some issues. You can also go the Matrix-manipulation route, but this is simpler if you just need a simple rotation.