Just a short while ago we brought you word that HBO’s Game of Thrones would be pausing their season one DVD sales and pulling a specific episode offline because it featured the head of President George W. Bush impaled on a spike. Not wasting any time, Game of Thrones is once again ready to conquer the shelves, this time featuring a scrubbed out profile of President Bush. Personally, I didn’t get what the big deal was the first time around and now, I don’t get what changing the appearance is going to solve. Scrub the scene entirely or grow up, laugh about it and move on. More details, including a new look at NOT- President George W. Bush’s head on a stick, after the jump.
So this whole thing started because producers D. B. Weiss and David Benioff pointed out the former President’s head on a spike during their commentary on the Game of Thrones DVD. They explained it thusly:
“The last head on the left is George Bush. 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…”
Oh and just to clarify, it’s not as if it’s Bush’s actual head (which would be in rather poor taste), but a prop head. Nonetheless, HBO reacted rather strongly, saying:
“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 careless mistake. We condemn it in the strongest possible terms and have halted all future shipments of the DVDs, removed it from our digital platforms and will edit the scene for all future airings on any distribution domestic or international.”
And so they did, and here it is (via the Washington Post):
So, yeah, the guy on the right is now some sort of weak-chinned, small nosed traitor who bears no resemblance to anyone famous or infamous or otherwise. It’s tough for Presidents to get a break anymore (at least Clinton kept his head in the Oval Office). Making a cameo in Game of Thrones could easily have been the greatest achievement for President Bush, only to have his visage digitally scrubbed away. How will history mark his memory now?
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Has anyone bothered to ask President Bush if he knew about it and what he thought? I’d be curious to know.
Perfect resolution to the problem … make him Bushier.
I was only curious why they had so many rubber Pres. Bush heads around.
Exactly. Every time this story pops up, I’m waiting for someone to explain that.
Didn’t they just slightly move his head to the left? Such a stupid controversy but oh well…
Bush could do a small cameo then everyone would shut the hell up LOL….
Come November it will be Obama, the king of spend and fail, who’s head is spiked..Thank God.
HBO…your politics suck, please keep them out of my entertainment.
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So HBO producing that Sarah Palin movie, which alleges that she was mentally unstable, but condemns using a mock head of bush that wasn’t meant to be Bush, and that zero people noticed?
Some one must have noticed. Or we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
I usually don’t get politically incorrect. But this was extremly disrespectful. He was our President of the United States. Imagine if they put the head of President Barack Obama on a stick. The media would have a hay day!
Honestly I heard about this when I got the Blu-ray it was just a bit of trivia. They needed a head they found Bush’s, who cares. I’m just glad I have the original so I can shake my head at people stupid reactions every time I watch it.
We’re never even shown the head from the front, so it doesn’t even look like Bush. At all. Why make such a big fuss over nothing?