HBO is pulling a controversial episode of its fantasy series Game of Thrones from rotation until scenes in which former President George W. Bush's severed head appears impaled on a stake are edited out.
After a fierce backlash from critics and politicians, the network announced on Friday that it was pulling the offending episode - last year's season finale - from its rotation, freezing shipments of DVD box sets and halting sales on iTunes until the embarrassing blunder was fixed.
'We were deeply dismayed to see this and find it unacceptable, disrespectful and in very bad taste,' HBO said in a statement to New York Daily News.
'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.'
Politicians have called for a boycott of HBO's fantasy series Game of Thrones, claiming the creator's decision to include former President George W. Bush's severed head in several scenes was 'despicable'.
In the 10th episode of the first season, Mr Bush's decapitated head is seen impaled on a wooden spike, covered in filthy long hair and slathered in dirt.
HBO and the show's creators, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, apologized for the incident.
Mr Benioff and Mr Weiss, who noted the appearance in the series' DVD commentary, insist it wasn't a political statement - just a prop.
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