Smarty replace question

I was wondering if it is possible to call {mailto} within a replace. 
Below is an example that doesn't work.  I have tried without the '' and 
{}.  Thanks.

Ex.
{$id|replace:'james':'{mailto address="[email protected]" text="james"}'} 
The idea is to make a name a mail link using smarty's mailto plugin.  I 
can replace with a normal <a href="mailto:[email protected]">james</a>, 
but would rather use the mailto function.