Didn't Russhole propose that arbitration agreement? He laid out the terms, Freemantle accepted it. After which he went Nuh uh! Judges generally aren't stupid. They see and wade through stupid shit for a living. And Russ is really really stupid.
Re-reading Russhole's email. I get a sense of the logic he's attempting to apply here, and I use the word "logic" in its loosest possible sense.
The fact that Russhole tried to paint Scenario 1 as being more costly shows that (a) he was trying to talk Marathon/Fremantle out of pursuing this option and (b) Russhole really has nfi about how the business side of the entertainment industry works.
Puttng my bush lawyer hat on for a moment, what I believe may have occurred during the phone call is one of two scenarios (lol).
Scenario 1: Russhole uneqivocally confirmed his agreement to accept the offer of having his share of the arbitration costs paid by Fremantle/Marathon.
Scenario 2: During the phone call, Russhole kept framing the offer as "Alternate Scenario 1", yet Molly found an opening in which she was able to convert this scenario into something resembling an agreement viz. causing Russhole to allegedly "misspeak".
Without hearing a recording or seeing a transcript of the phonecall, we'll never know. Even without either of these things, I suspect Molly keeps meticulous file notes as an
aide-memoir*. In a he-said she-said scenario, the party with the better file notes (or in many cases any file notes at all) may be at an advantage.
Either way, Molly called his bluff. It's just unfortunate for Russhole that Molly had a full house when all Rusty was holding was a pair of twos.
Or maybe I'm overestimating my abilities for interpreting legal matters as a result of my one whole semester of Business Law at uni.
* Russhole's histrionics in this filing don't count; this isn't so much an aide-memior as straight-up AIDS