Alter status bar or thumbnail view from python plugin

Is there any way for a (python) plugin to alter the status bar and/or
thumbnail view?

I've written a plugin to rate photos, which sets a user-level xattr on
the file to the number of stars a user has given the image. I'd love
to display this as an overlay on the thumbnail bar, or at least in the
status bar. I see other plugins modify the status bar, but they're all
in C and I can't figure out how to do this from python.

By looking at the .gir it doesn't seem possible, do I need to add GI
annotations to eog itself before I can make use of these functions? Is
there any reason not to do that, or has it just not been done yet?

Cheers,
 - Tim.