Dicky Ekland and Micky Ward Go to the Oscars

In case you missed this Mark Shanahan & Meredith Goldstein item in today’s Globe – a shout-out, a website and a sequel. The brothers Ekland and Ward from The Fighter still a draw!

Christian Bale makes a good product spokesman. After giving a shoutout during his Oscar speech to Dicky Eklund and Eklund’s training website, DickEklund.com, the site got so many hits it was temporarily unavailable. It’s now getting about 9,000 hits a day, says North Shore designer Jenn Mears. Mears’s own Web design site has also received a spike in hits since the speech. “I got congratulatory e-mails from all over the place!,’’ Jenn told us via e-mail. “Christian Bale has been great about plugging the site whenever he makes an appearance and that has been a real help to Dicky’s training business.’’ Dicky and his website will keep getting attention if Mark Wahlberg was actually serious about making a sequel to “The Fighter.’’ The actor brought up the possibility of a second film — one that would follow Micky Ward’s fights against Arturo Gatti — when he walked the red carpet Sunday. Casting ideas for Gatti, anyone? Brothers Ward and Eklund have been booked to speak at Suffolk University tomorrow.