How can I plot NaN values as a special color with imshow?

Hrm, it appears I can use a masked array to do this:

masked_array = np.ma.array (a, mask=np.isnan(a))
cmap = matplotlib.cm.jet
cmap.set_bad('white',1.)
ax.imshow(masked_array, interpolation='nearest', cmap=cmap)

This should suffice, though I’m still open to suggestions. :]