Does casting porn stars (in non porn indies of course) hurt your chances of distribution?
The issue is whether having the actor's name on the billing will harm the picture, and a related issue if you can actually leverage the actor's notoriety to increase the popularity of your film. The OP was "Does casting porn stars (in non porn indies of course) hurt your chances of distribution?"I disagree. There are sub-genres and different types of horror. I love the film The Shining, but I've failed to sit through 1 Troma movie. A film like Silence of the Lambs, The Shining, or even Mr. Brooks (example given by OP) would not benefit from a porn star. Although a gory slasher film, exploitation film, or something similar to those to types of horror would most likely.
While all of the movies listed above are directed at adults, that does not mean that they will appeal to the same adults.
I'm sure Nicolson did a soft-porn movie, although doing a search, I can't seem to figure out what it was.
Almost the entire cast of SPONGBOB came from HBO's very adult Mr. Show with Bob and David (Bob Odenkirk and David Cross).