Who would have thought the decapitation of Ned Stark would only be the second-most controversial beheading on Game of Thrones Season 1?

HBO has been forced to apologized on behalf of creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss after they admitted in a DVD commentary that one of the heads on a stick pointed out by Joffrey (to Sansa) on the first season finale was actually of George W. Bush.

Take a close look at the face on the left in this photo:

The producers insist the prop was "not a choice" or "a political statement" and they "just had to use whatever heads we had around.”

However, in the face of Republican ire, HBO has released the following 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.”

The Bush head will be removed from future DVD copies and Benioff and Weiss have now added the following: "We meant no disrespect to the former president and apologize if anything we said or did suggested otherwise.”

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.