Game of Thrones bosses apologise for George Bush head on spike – Daily TV round-up

The creators of HBO drama 'Game of Thrones' have apologised after a head on a spike used as a prop in the show appeared to be a likeness of George W. Bush.

David Benioff and D.B. Weiss noted the likeness in a DVD commentary, but have said that it was due to a budgetary issue rather than a political statement.

[Related story: Game of Thrones and Downton Abbey up for US TV gongs]

“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 around,” they said during the commentary.

But they have since said sorry if the likeness caused any offence to the former president.

“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. After the scene was already shot, someone pointed out that one of the heads looked like George W. Bush,” they said.

“In the DVD commentary, we mentioned this, though we should not have. We meant no disrespect to the former President and apologise if anything we said or did suggested otherwise.”

Craig Eaton, the chairman of the Brooklyn Republican Party spoke to the Daily Mail about the debacle saying, "I think that it's despicable. As a country, Democrats, Republicans, we have to have respect for the office and the individuals.

"Think about what people outside the country think when they see how Americans are disparaging their own former presidents."

Showmakers HBO also waded in with an apology.

“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 apologised immediately for this inadvertent careless mistake. We are sorry this happened and will have it removed from any future DVD production,” read a statement. [Hollywood Reporter]

Also in today's press

Coleen Nolan has quit 'This Morning'. She presented her last slot yesterday, after two years presenting the show's The Hub slot. She has been a presenter on the show on and off since 2001. [Daily Mail]

A teaser trailer for the second series of 'Homeland' has emerged. Just 10 seconds long, it shows Claire Danes' character Carrie Mathison shrouded in darkness with the words: 'You wait. You lay low. Then you come to life.' Series two begins on 30 September. [Metro]

Fans of the show 'Spartacus: Blood And Sand' are being asked to donate to a documentary film about its late star Andy Whitfield. Whitfield died of non-Hodgkins lymphoma last year, aged 39. The film, called 'Be Here Now', follows him and his family in the last months of his life and needs funds to help complete it. [Daily Mail]