Friar fight over ‘punch’ line

PAGE Six is used to people denying their rowdy behavior when we ask them about it. But it’s kind of unusual for them to insist that we report on it.

When we contacted former Howard Stern exec Tim Sabean about a tip we received that he had punched Friars Club honcho Bruce Charet at the 55th Street private club, he was cagey about discussing the matter.

But when we published a story in which Charet claimed Sabean hadn’t landed a punch on him, Sabean got in touch with us — to say that he had indeed socked Charet, thank you very much, and that he wasn’t happy Charet was “rewriting history.”

Sabean told us that he and Charet got into an exchange in the club’s Barbra Streisand Room, during which he told Charet, “We should go outside, where I can hear better!”

Sabean told us, “At [that] time, he shoved me . . . I then defended myself and punched him in the nose . . . and put him down.”

He concluded, “Bruce then got up off the floor and walked out with a bloody nose.”

He also told us that the lead-up to the fracas was different from the way we’d heard it.

Sources told us that Charet — who’s had “bad blood” with Sabean — had offered Sabean a conciliatory drink, and they got into it after Sabean turned him down.

But Sabean — who worked on Stern’s SiriusXM show for nearly 10 years, and now works for a radio conglomerate — told us it had all started when he said to Charet, “They still allow you in [the Friars Club]?,” referring to a sexual-harassment suit that the club had settled over allegations against Charet (which he has denied). According to Sabean, Charet then said, “You’re a f - - king a - - hole,” and things went south from there.

Charet had played down the issue to us, quipping, “Where I come from in Brooklyn, it barely rises to the level of a fight.” He added, “He certainly didn’t punch me in the face.”