UPDATE: HBO Apologizes for George W. Bush's Head on a Stick

UPDATE 6/14: Well, that was quick. Just hours after the story about "Game of Thrones" having George W. Bush's head on a stick went viral, HBO has come out with an apology. Benioff and Weiss have apologized as well, saying "We meant no disrespect to the former President and apologize if anything we said or did suggested otherwise."

"We use a lot of prosthetic body parts on the show: heads, arms, etc.," explained Benioff and Weiss. "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. "

HBO's official statement: "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 inadvertent careless mistake. We are sorry this happened and will have it removed from any future DVD production."

Sounds about right, considering the offense. Did they really think that people would be okay with this?

Original story follows:

Hot off the heels of a report that says that Republicans don't like HBO very much comes this little easter egg hidden in season one of "Game of Thrones": the head of a Republican president, displayed prominently on a stake.

If you'll remember, back in season one, episode ten of "Game of Thrones," Joffrey took Sansa to the wall of King's Landing where the heads of traitors are mounted on sticks as reminders to others. The very last head on the left, though, isn't one from Westeros. It's the head of George W. Bush.

Series creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss explain the choice in the DVD commentary:

"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 head we had around."

Why did they just happen to have the head of George W. Bush lying around? I'm not so sure I buy that "it's not a political statement" bit. I mean, why not own it? It's not as if they're displaying a still-living U.S. president in a horribly violent matter.

Listen, I don't like the guy either, but beheading just seems a bit much. That's all I'm saying. Beheading should probably be the last thing we turn to in criticizing our politicians. Then again, we'll see how legislation at the state level continues.

Check out the picture below, and head over to i09 to watch the video.