matplotlib Basemap help

Hi everyone - I'm trying to move all of my MATLAB mapping scripts over
to the Basemap toolbox of matplotlib. There are 2 things however that
I still can't figure out:

1) When using the Mollweide projection I can't place meridian labels
at all (presumably because they converge at the poles). In MATLAB one
could explicity give a parallel to place the labels on, e.g. the
equator. Is such a thing possible using Basemap?

2) All my latitude labels have pesky 'N' or 'S' after them, which is
fine for geographic latitude but not for galactic latitude (I'm an
astronomer) which denotes southern latitudes with a minus sign e.g.
-45 deg. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

Simon Murphy

.