Idols

Hero Pilot in D.C.

Sullenberger got personal invite from Obama.

Following his usual tactic of co-opting his rivals, Barack Obama has invited the only person as popular as he is to this week's celebrations. The hero of the Hudson, US Airways Captain Chesley Sullenberger III, will be in attendance at the inauguration after receiving a personal request from the president-elect to come to Washington for the festivities, according to the mayor of Sullenberger's hometown of Danville, California. The aviator became an instant star on Thursday after he successfully landed a passenger plane in the Hudson River despite losing both engines, saving the lives of everyone on board. According to the pilot's wife, Lorrie, her teenage daughters are especially excited to join him in Washington, D.C. "Our daughters would love to go see the Jonas Brothers," she said in a CBS interview.