Tony Mendez, long-time cue-card holder for "Late Show with ­ David Letterman" got sacked from his most-coveted job after assaulting Bill Scheft, a staff writer for the show.

The row between on-air favorite Mendez and the 15-time Emmy nominee Scheft blew up on Oct. 9 before the show's Thursday taping started. However, the tension started mounting with a verbal fight the day before in Letterman's dressing room, Mendez revealed to New York Post.

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"[Scheft] encroaches on my work. He tells me what to do, and I have to say, 'I know what I'm doing.' And a lot of time when I am making changes [to the cards], he'll stand there looking over my shoulder, and he'll say something like, 'Put that on top,' because he got an idea," Mendez told the newspaper.

While the three were rehearsing at Letterman's backstage on Oct. 8, Mendez seemed to have had enough of Scheft's interruptions, so he told him, "I know what I'm doing. Get off my back."

Letterman growled: "Tony, your sour disposition isn't helping," Mendez recalled.

Mendez admittedly got "pissed off," but he also said that it was common between he and Letterman to exchange off-color barbs.

"That's how we talk," Mendez said. "We tell each other 'F-k you' and 'Hey a-hole.'

Mendez felt really bad that night and the following morning, he assaulted Scheft and got him in the throat.

"I just grabbed him by the shirt," Mendez said. "He was very surprised. He didn't say a word. He was cowering, his eyes were real big, he probably peed a little bit on his pants."

Mendez was immediately fired from work but he won't retire penniless because  CBS will be given a generous stipend in lieu of his salary and health insurance until the end of Letterman's show this May.

Mendez teamed with Letterman in 1993, while Letterman was still with NBC.

TagsDavid Letterman, Tony Mendez, Bill Scheft