The first rule of Friars Club: You don’t talk about Friars Club.
Sources tell Page Six that an all-out melee broke out in the legendary private club’s Barbra Streisand Room when divisive club honcho Bruce Charet and longtime Howard Stern exec Tim Sabean went at it amid the martinis.
Sources say that the pair have “years of bad blood,” and that Charet had offered to buy Sabean a conciliatory drink.
“Bruce is the kind of guy that needs to make people who hate him like him,” said a source.
Sabean — who was an exec for the shock jock’s Sirius show for nearly 10 years, and now works for a radio conglomerate — told Charet he wasn’t interested, but Charet insisted.
We’re told that when Charet asked a third time, Sabean lost his patience and both of them got violent.
There are varying accounts of what happened in the ensuing fracas in the oak-paneled room — used by celebs including Jimmy Fallon for private parties — with some reporting that Sabean punched Charet in the face. Others say the two were pulled apart by fellow members before either got hurt.
But we’re told that the members at the club cheered for their favored combatant when the battle began.
Charet played down the issue, telling us, “Where I come from in Brooklyn, it barely rises to the level of a fight,” adding, “He certainly didn’t punch me in the face.”
We’re told that lawyers were brought in to handle the aftermath and that the club called both Charet and Sabean after the dust settled to decide if any disciplinary action needed to be taken.
In the end, the club deemed that unnecessary, and both men remain members.
The club recently settled a lawsuit with a former receptionist who accused Charet — a “scribe” at the club (which uses monastic terms for its personnel) — of sexual harassment. The club didn’t respond to our request for comment.
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