No heads are rolling at HBO after an unlikely cameo by a George W. Bush head/mask in an episode of Game of Thrones, but enough controversy was kicked up to prompt a pair of apologies.
The brouhaha began when word spread that Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss pointed out the use of a prosthetic head in a Season 1 episode of Game of Thrones during the Blu-ray and DVD controversy. “The last head on the left is George Bush,” they say during a scene where King Joffrey points out his collection of heads to Sansa Stark in King’s Landing. “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 heads we had lying around.”
Game of Thrones is an extremely expensive show to produce so it’s not hard to imagine the “filler” heads used in the scene were grabbed at the last moment from whatever stockpile was available. I personally don’t believe they were aiming to make some political statement with Bush’s head. If they were, there would have been no reason to bring it up on the commentary.
As word about the George W. Bush head began to spread, HBO came under immense pressure by Republican leaders. They demanded an apology for the incident, and they got it from both HBO and both of the Game of Thrones showrunners.
I personally think the George W. Bush severed head controversy is no big deal and hope HBO isn’t bullied into editing the head out in future broadcasts or home video releases. You can barely make it out, and it’s got a shaggy wig on it to boot. What would be more appalling is if Game of Thrones loses viewers because of a silly prosthetic head.
Source: Deadline
