WASHINGTON – HBO has apologized for beheading former President George W. Bush in several scenes of its hit fantasy series “Game of Thrones.”
“We were deeply dismayed to see this and find it unacceptable, disrespectful and in very bad taste,” HBO said in a statement, according to CBS News.
“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.”
Creators Dave Benioff and D.B. Weiss also issued a joint statement, saying that any resemblance to the former president was not intentional.
“We use a lot of prosthetic body parts on the show: heads, arms, etc. We can’t afford to have these all made from scratch, especially in scenes where we need a lot of them, so we rent them in bulk,” they said.
“After the scene was already shot, someone pointed out that one of the heads looked like George W. Bush. In the DVD commentary, we mentioned this, though we should not have. We meant no disrespect to the former president and apologize if anything we said or did suggested otherwise.”
In a recent DVD release of season one, Benioff and Weiss admitted to using a severed head that looks suspiciously like former Bush in this scene (pay extra close attention around 1:10):
“The last head on the left is George Bush,” the creators said in the commentary, according to WFLA. “George Bush’s head appears in a couple of beheading scenes. It’s not a choice, it’s not a political statement. We just had to use whatever head we had lying around.”
Not everyone was amused by the stunt.
Chairman of the Brooklyn Republican party Craig Eaton has called on viewers to boycott the show, according to E !.
“Whether you like him or dislike him, whether you’re of the same political persuasion or not, we still have to respect the office of the presidency and all of those who hold that presidency,” Eaton said.
“Americans of all political persuasions should stand up and demand that things like this should not continue. They should boycott watching this particular show.”
What do you think? Did “Game of Thrones” go too far, or are people taking it too seriously?
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