(Photo: Splash News Online)

As has been widely reported, Charlie Rose made a terrible faux pas during his annual New Year's Eve tribute on PBS to important people who died in 2008 when he included filmmaker George Butler among the dead.

Butler's best known film is Pumping Iron, which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger during his bodybuilding days.

Unfortunately, the talk-show host had confused the moviemaker George Butler with jazz record executive George Butler -- a driving force behind Wynton Marsalis -- who had died April 9.

What makes the mistake unusual is that filmmaker Butler and Rose are friends!

"The George Butler who is my friend is alive and well and living in New Hampshire," Rose said on his show last Thursday. "We apologize to him and his friends, and look forward to having him on the program in the new year."

As for Butler, he told the Washington Post, "I am bemused. Charlie did a great job in retracting the huge error. Still, it's very disconcerting."

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