Would this be a good alternative?
– Select the Image; Object/Lock
– Select the table; Edit/Copy; Edit/Paste in Place
– Select the top Table, change it’s cells fill to None, it’s Stroke to Black
– Change the Opacity of the textframe containing the top table to 0% in the Effects Panel
– Select both the text frames containing both tables (that’s why we locked the image layer – to prevent it from being select when we drag select both text frames)(in case you don’t have CS5 with it’s Layers panel
and group them: Object/Group
– Select the group and put a checkmark in front of Knockout Group in the effects panel.
This way you’ll use the black stroke color of the top table as an opacity mask for the bottom table.
If you want to use this technique it’s recommended to apply it after the table has been ‘finalised’ and at least the cell sizes won’t change anymore.