Well, here's a sentence one might never have expected to write... The Games of Thrones producers have apologised after revealing that one of the 'heads' seen on a spike during the first season' finale was in fact very similar to that of... forty-third US President George Bush.
Yes, really. It appears that one of the victims displayed for all to see bears an uncanny likeness to the former Commander-in-Chief - albeit with more hair. The producers revealed the likeness during commentary on the first series DVD, but have clarified that the addition of the head was in no way a political statement, but was the pragmatic use of old props. Showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss explained that with the prohibitive cost of creating props, 'old' model heads were sometimes used. The image is hardly seen in the finished episode, indeed the episode aired over a year ago with no complaints. However sharp-eyed viewers can catch the familiar profile in the background if they bother to freeze-frame
The producers have admitted that it was probably a bad idea to mention it in the commentary and issued an apology, with HBO also adding that it wasn't acceptable, even by accident/lack of intent and it will be taken out of future DVD releases of the episode.
"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," the showrunners said. "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."
And you though the current political climate was dramatic!
