Please don't use the word "proverbial" to apologize for using a cliche. In the second place, it's rarely a proverb, usually just a stock phrase. In the first place, it doesn't help the cliche to point at it; if anything, it draws attention to the paucity of the phrase. If it's too much work to rewrite the phrase into something original (and almost inevitably more specific and vivid), strike out "proverbial" and let the cliche slink by on its own.