Game of Thrones Sticks George W Bush’s Severed Head on Spike, HBO Apologises Amid Backlash [VIDEO]

HBO's hugely popular television series Game of Thrones has run aground with a bit of controversy. A scene from the tenth episode of the first season has been found to show a prop - a severed head - that bears an uncanny resemblance to former president George W Bush. Needless to say, the incident has sparked tremendous criticism and outcry.

Craig Eaton, the chairman of the Brooklyn Republican Party, called it "disgraceful" and asked for the boycotting of the show in the US.

"No matter what political persuasion, to put a former president in the light they did with his head on a stick is shameful," Eaton said in a statement, as reported by New York Daily News.

According to a report in the Daily Mail, the offending prop was one of several used in the finale to the first season, which saw the character King Joffrey force his new bride, Sansa Stark, to look upon the head of her father (the prop to the right of the one recognised as George W Bush) Ned Stark. Apparently, since the head only appears briefly, it went unnoticed until it was highlighted by users on social media Web site Reddit.

Meanwhile, show producers HBO apologised for the controversy, late on Wednesday.

"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," HBO said in a statement.

The producers of the Game of Thrones had acknowledged the resemblance of the head to Bush during the commentary feature on the show's DVD boxed set and apologised for using the prop.

"We meant no disrespect to the former President and apologize if anything we said or did suggested otherwise," David Benioff and DB Weiss said in a joint statement, also adding they had no political statement in mind.

"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 in the commentary.

Watch below a YouTube video of the scene from Game of Thrones season one episode showing the severed head that resembles President Bush (pause at around the one minute mark)...