BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Diana Ross is back and putting her best face forward. But the question is where does she go from here. "I keep asking myself that," said Ross, on hand to roll out a new line of beauty products she is promoting for M-A-C Cosmetics.

 

 

There is one thing she knows for certain, the 60-year-old pop diva told The Associated Press: "I am a survivor."

 

 

Ross has had her ups and downs in recent times, both personally and professionally. She spent two days in jail last year following a no-contest plea to driving under the influence in Tucson, Ariz. Her ill-advised effort to reunite the Supremes for a 2000 concert tour without co-founder Mary Wilson or veteran Cindy Birdsong was largely a failure.

 

 

Rebounding in 2005, Ross wowed a global audience last weekend with her show-closing performance of "Reach Out and Touch" at Tsunami Aid, which raised millions for victims of the Dec. 26 disaster.

 

 

Surrounded by photographers Thursday, she flitted, flirted and even shook her derriere in old-time Supremes fashion.

 

 

But as important as audiences are to her, Ross told the AP that family comes first.

 

 

"I always have to keep my focus in the right direction, which is really about my children," she said. The twice-divorced Ross has five: three adult daughters and two teenage sons.

 

 

In the meantime, though, she's enjoying promoting M-A-C products, for which she says she was already a customer before she became a spokeswoman. It didn't hurt either that she was given an active role in determining what the line would include.

 

 

"She has a strong vision of what she wants in terms of the product and how she likes to look and the image she likes to portray," said M-A-C's global president, John Demsey.

 

 

But then her appearance has always been as much a part of her public persona as her voice.

 

 

"Am I a beauty icon?" she asked, turning to a swarm of photographers. They replied with a halfhearted "Yes."

 

 

"Am I a beauty icon?! Ross asked again, more boldly this time.

 

 

"YES!" the photographers shouted back, creating a supreme diva moment.

Oki doki