HBO officials apologized on Wednesday for decapitating former Republican President George W. Bush and putting his head on a spike in an episode of its hit fantasy show "Game of Thrones."
We were deeply dismayed to see this and find it unacceptable, disrespectful and in very bad taste. We made this clear to the executive producers of the series who apologized immediately for this inadvertent careless mistake. We are sorry this happened and will have it removed from any future DVD production.
The show featured the former president’s severed head covered in a wig and placed on a stake. It did not take an eagle-eyed viewer to make the discovery—show creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss admitted on the DVD commentary that they had used Bush’s face as a prop.
It is not the first time Hollywood has come under fire for visiting violence upon inanimate Republicans. In October 2008, a Los Angeles artist hung a Sarah Palin doll in effigy. He did not apologize.