When a Hollywood producer called Wednesday to invite her to California this weekend to tape a Bob Hope special, Margaret M. Vaillancourt '79 thought it was a joke.

"They told me I had won a Bob Hope Youth Award and I thought it was the Lampoon calling," Vaillancourt, who is also a Rhodes Scholarship winner, said Thursday.

Juvenile Delinquents

Vaillancourt left for Los Angeles yesterday morning for the taping of "Bob Hope Presents the American Youth Awards." Fellow award winners include Chris Evert, Ron Howard of "Happy Days," Jim Rice of the Red Sox, Notre Dame basketball star Kelly Tripucka, and 13 others, all under the age of 25.

The show will be aired March 2 on NBC.

Hope wanted to honor American youth and came up with the awards idea himself, a spokesman said yesterday. Hope personally chose Vaillancourt for the sole academic award given, the spokesman said.

Vaillancourt hadn't applied for the award or even known it existed, but said she thought the idea behind the awards was a good one.

"Hope wants to contradict the image of the 'me' generation, to say there are lots of different ways young people are making a contribution to society," she said.

Discovered

Vaillancourt has acted in several Harvard productions and said the chance to experience Hollywood first-hand appealed to the "aspiring actress" in her.

"They promised me cue cards. I just hope I'm not too nervous to read them," she said.