Queen quotes Groucho at 80th birthday celebration

LONDON, June 15 (Reuters) Queen Elizabeth today stole a line from comedian Groucho Marx at a lunch to mark her official 80th birthday this weekend.

Reflecting on the realities of getting older, she told the 350 guests at London's Mansion House: ''As Groucho Marx once said 'Anyone can get old all you have to do is live long enough.'' Earlier, politicians, pop stars and military chiefs packed into St Paul's Cathedral for a special service to the feisty octogenarian who shows no signs of slowing down or ever contemplating abdication.

Guests ranged from Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to pop stars Cliff Richard and Eric Clapton.

In a sermon, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams hailed the queen for giving the British monarchy a human face. ''Monarchy as it has developed here is a way of keeping power human,'' said Williams.

He also took the unusual step of sympathising with the monarch for the intrusions of a celebrity-obsessed culture into the private lives of the House of Windsor.

''Your Majesty has more reason than most to know the cost of a culture fanatically eager for gossip and trivia and the exposure in public of what should be private,'' said Williams.

The queen was seated next to her husband the Duke of Edinburgh in St Paul's, site of many landmark events in British royal history, from the jubilee celebrations of 19th century Queen Victoria to the 1981 wedding of heir to the throne Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.

At the lunch, Blair expressed thanks on behalf of the country.

''We salute you today, we wish you well and above all we wish you many happy, long years to reign over us,'' he said. ''Ma'am, on behalf of the whole of the country, thank you.

On her official birthday on Saturday, the queen will attend a military parade.

She celebrated her real birthday on April 21 at a private dinner with close friends and family.

REUTERS SY BD2141